Glory of Love
by Kunoichi Nazena
Summary: During a fight with the Foot, Splinter is seperated from his students. But he has luck in more than just one way... Splinter x OC
1. The Loss

Hello everybody! I´m originally from Germany, so this is my first try to write fan fiction in English. Don´t be so hard with me, I´m really trying. I wanted to write this story for a long time. I published the first two chapters in German first and got a review from Cynlee. She wished to read my story,so I proposed to rewrite it in English and she agreed to reread and correct it. So, thanks to Cynlee! Without you, this wouldn´t have been possible, because I wouldn't have dared to publish something in a language I can't speak (and write in) properly.

**Glory of Love**

**Chapter One: The Loss**

Another training mission. And Splinter trained them! They were in a rush the whole night long. He hunted them across the city, practicing the art of invisibility, practicing their stealthiness.

Finally, they ended up at the harbor. Splinter advised them to find him in this maze of lanes and to catch him unaware. Much easier said than done!

Leonardo and Donatello formed one team, Raphael and Michelangelo the other one. They separated. Really regretting the division, Raphael wrinkled his nose.

"Something around here really stinks. Mikey, when is the last time you showered?"

His brother didn't answer. Mikey was watching, spellbound, around a corner, gesturing to Raph with his hand.

"Shhh!".

Raph pushed him away.

"What's going…ON!" Some Foot crept up the gangway of a ship. Raph grabbed his shell cell. "Everyone immediately up to dock seventeen! Foot alert!"

After a few minutes the turtles and their master rejoined them.

"What are they up to?" Leonardo whispered.

"Dunno. But the ship is supposed to be abandoned." Donatello had hacked into the harbors computer network. "It's only a regular cargo ship which should be loaded with Asiatic cars."

"Asiatic?" Leonardo sounded alerted. "Maybe there is something here from the Japanese branch of the Foot. Let's see!"

Leonardo went first. The others followed him without a sound. No Ninja were to be seen. Splinter pointed at Raphael and Leonardo and nodded downwards, then he waved Michelangelo and Donatello to come with him to the bridge.

Splinter peered through a window, his eyes narrowing. A Foot fiddled around with the controls. Suddenly the ship was moving! The bank went away rapidly. But for now, he couldn't change it. There were just seven Ninja at the bridge- an easy fight, and Leo and Raph could handle the rest. For sure Donatello was able to steer the ship back. Otherwise they would have to swim, he considered. He did most definitely not like this thought. It took half an eternity for his fur to get dry. Turning back to his sons, he nodded. The signal to attack. Together, they sprang right trough the window.

Leonardo and Raphael ducked behind a cargo box. They had to, due to the fact that there were at least fifty Foot Ninja standing in front of them, among them two Elite Guards. "What the shell do they want here", whispered Leo, grabbing his katana.

"Easy, bro." Raph held him back. He knew that the sight of the Elite Guards was like a red scar for Leonardo. His normally so self-controlled brother couldn't nearly hold back as he saw his so hatred enemies. "Better to get the others. This is a little bit too much for the two of us."

"**You** want to get help? **You**?"

"Yeah, I know, it's not like me, but…"

Suddenly Leonardo pushed Raph away and ducked. A shuirken struck deep into the wood, right where Raphael had crouched a moment before! He gulped.

"Geez. Leo?" He held his sais at the ready. "Looks like we're spotted!"

Splinter finished the first and the second ninja even before his students entered the room. The third one struck with his katana. Splinter ducked and sprang away. The sword missed him by just a few inches and hit a hose at the wall. Black hydraulic fluid poured over the floor, so that Splinter lost his balance and fell. Immediately the ninja pounced on him.

Meanwhile Raphael and Leonardo had lots of trouble, too. Surrounded by Foot, they tried desperately to fight a way out of this mess, but…

"Leo, there're just too many of them", panted Raphael. He sensed that he was becoming exhausted. He had shut down at least a dozen of them, his sais were busy at work, but the Ninja increased like rats, he thought-- and then mentally apologized to his sensei.

He struck another one, back to back with his brother, giving Leonardo the same cover that Leo gave him. Another katana sliced the air just to be blocked by a pair of sais, another punch was stopped, another kick parried.

Normally Raph enjoyed fighting and didn't think about the possible risks, but this had become too serious. For the first time ever he thought he couldn't make it. He heard katanas clattering behind him.

Leo. His so nerving "Big-Leader-Brother". And the rest of his family, including his father, was at this ship as well. He mustn't give up! He had to go through, for them!

"Hyaaaahhhh!" Raphael, ignoring the cover Leo was providing him, sprang into action, trying to finish as many of these scum as possible.

Leo yanked him back.

"Over there!"

The stairs! They had still a chance! With new hope they kept on fighting, approaching the stairs inch for inch.

Splinter couldn't breathe anymore. The ninja had looped a rope twice round his throat and tightened it. Splinter had dug his claws into it and pulled, but he couldn't stand at this slippery ground and concentrate on the rope. Luckily the Foot had the same problem. Both staggered out of the bridge and onto the deck.

Finally a clean floor! Splinter writhed under the Foot, he saw black points already. Slightly he heard a shout. Raph and Leo hurried up a staircase, both wounded, bleeding and followed by a few dozen Ninja. Splinter felt his strength fainting. His field of vision was heavily reduced. His legs weakened. He noticed barely that Leonardo hurried towards him. Suddenly the pressure around his throat was removed and he fell against the rail. Panting in the cool night air he was glad to be still alive, but then he was being lifted... and falling...

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April sat on the couch, surrounded by four very depressed turtles.

"What happened then?" she asked.

For a while nobody answered. Then Leonardo went on.

"The Foot threw him over the rail. Then he attacked me, so that I couldn't rescue him. When I finally managed to fight him down, Sensei was nowhere to be seen. I grabbed a rope and jumped into the water, but the ship was too fast and the night too dark." He lowered his voice. "I was not able to find him… to rescue him. We managed to defeat the Foot, but…"

Silence again. No one dared to speak, to say this one thought they all shared. It was impossible… he couldn't be… he just couldn't…

April stood up and touched Leonardo's shoulder gently.

"I'm sure he is fine. He's a fighter. He is strong. For sure he will make it!"

Raphael shook his head.

"He was just semiconscious. That ninja nearly strangled him," he told her.

"What happened to the ninja?" April asked.

Raph grinned evilly.

"**He** will never ever again worry about breathing!"

April swallowed.


	2. Flotsam and Jetsam

Yahoo! I really made it! I translated the first chapter into English. Armed with a dictionary, I needed more than five hours just for those two pages. And I wrote the German text in one. Puhhh. Hard work, but up to the next one.

I just published two chapters in German and I suppose it will be easier to write the story "new" in English then to translate the German parts. So I´m looking up to chapter three. Thanks again to Cynlee for rereading and correcting and just for the motivation. Thanks as well for the reviews.

And thanks to LEO, not the Turtle, but the Web Database Dictionary. It would have taken even more time to translate the second chapter if I would have to consult every word in a normal dictionary.

The Turtles, Splinter etc. are the property of Mirage, Tally Brown is mine.

Chapter 2: Flotsam and Jetsam

Tally Brown was a slender young woman, not as tall as she would like to be, with long brown hair and blue eyes. She lived in New York, but she had a holiday house at Long Island. She was a doctor with her own office, so she was able to afford the luxury of a second house.

But at the moment she just wanted one thing: a holiday. It was late autumn and pretty cold outside, so she dressed in a warm coat before she went out. The night before had been stormy, but now the weather was calm, though it was raining just a little bit. She didn't care. What she needed was a long, nice walk.

The beach was deserted. After the frantic bustle of the city and the gray weather there, Tally enjoyed the loneliness. She breathed deeply, holding her head back and letting the rain fall on her face. She smiled. This was wonderful.

She walked along the beach and followed the course of the dunes. Here and there pieces of wood and garbage disturbed the peaceful beauty of the scenery. Between a few rocks was a bigger piece of flotsam and jetsam, surely from the storm last night, she thought. She went towards it.

The thing was furry; a dead animal? As she got closer she could see it properly, and she stumbled back in fright.

It was an animal, but one she had never seen before. It looked like a giant rat, but the proportions just weren't right. Besides, she hadn't heard of a rat before which wore a robe. Carefully she nudged it with her foot. It didn´t move. She stretched out her hand and gently touched its throat. She could sense the pulse, but it was very weak. The creature felt cold. Undecided, she bit at her lips. Then she pulled off her coat and wrapped the animal in it.

With some difficulty she carried it to her holiday house. Again she was thankful because of the weather, because she didn´t meet anybody. She wouldn´t have known how to explain this being.

Finally, she arrived and brought her find into the living room. It wasn't too heavy, but its fur was soaked with water and though she was strong, she wasn't that strong. It had tired her out, but she had managed without dropping it. She laid it on the new-- and now for sure ruined – sofa, took a few clean towels from the bathroom and scrutinized the creature.

Her first impression had been right. It really was a giant rat. Carefully she rubbed it dry and felt wounds under the fur. A big lacerated wound on its head, and a few rips, the right arm and the right leg were broken. Probably the storm the previous night had caused it to drift against the rocks. Sighing, she took her doctor's bag and began to care for it wounds. In the end her work had found her. So much for her planned holiday.

After a while she had done as much as she could do. She gave it a few injections against infection. She was sure it had some water in its lungs, but she couldn't do anything about that right now. She took a book and sat down in an armchair near the sofa on which she had laid the creature. The only thing she could do right now was to wait until it awoke.

Was that really the only thing? She was uncertain what to do. Shouldn't she call the police or the animal shelter? But this being didn't look like a normal animal. For just a tiny little moment she thought of something else, but…

"You watch too many sci-fi movies, Tally Brown," she scolded herself. "For sure it's no alien."

But what then? And what to do? She was not so frightened anymore. The creature was seriously hurt and no danger to her. Besides, it didn't seem to be very powerful, though brawny. A breeding object or a genetic experiment? She didn't want any trouble with the government. Best thing would be to call someone or to bring it back where she had found it... but… but… after all, she was a doctor! And this thing was now her patient. So she decided to wait.

A few hours later she looked up from her novel. Her patient moaned in its sleep and sniveled quietly. Tally closed her book and bent forward to this strange animal.

Suddenly it opened its eyes! Startled she shied away from it. With an absolutely impossible speed the creature sprang from the sofa and tried to run away, but its broken leg could not support it and it hit the ground. Backwards and on all four legs it crawled – still remarkably fast- away from Tally and towards a window. It jumped up and tried to bounce through the pane, but recoiled, tumbled on an occasional table and got entangled with the telephone cord.

Involuntary she smiled.

Her surgery was near a bank. After this had been robbed, there had been a exchange of fire between the policemen and the bank robbers. A few bullets had hit her surgery, and so she had had bulletproof glass installed there as well as in her apartment and her summer cottage. Sure, it was a little bit paranoid, but after all, she was New Yorker.

Her strange guest hissed and fought with the cord, trying desperately to break free, but only became more entangled with the cord. Most obviously it was afraid of her.

Tally sat down on the floor and stretched her hand out with caution. The animal had very impressive teeth and she hoped that it wouldn't bite her. Maybe it had rabies, or something else. Carefully she uncoiled the telephone cord. The creature stayed calm and cringed just a few times when she touched the bandages at its right leg. She smiled. Her patient seemed finally to have calm down; at least it breathed considerably more even now. She spoke gently and calmly: "Take it easy, calm down, I don´t want to hurt you, calm down, shhh."

Carefully she stretched her hands further, in reach of its teeth. The creature flinched back with the upper part of its body, but didn't try to bite her. Warily she helped it stand, and half-carried it back to the sofa where she applied new bandages, because its head wound had burst open after it has hit the window.

It seems to understand that I want to help it, she thought, because it kept still as she cared for his injury, and that must definitely hurt.

It stayed calm at the sofa – this time- and looked at her from intelligent brown eyes. Tally smiled again.

"You must be hungry. But what does something like you eat?"

The creature looked into her eyes- and cleared its throat.

"Some hot soup and tea would be very kind, thank you."

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" Scared to death Tally flinched and stumbled backwards over to the armchair. She plopped in it and immediately tucked up her legs. With eyes wide open she stared at the "animal".

It sighed. Its voice sounded very weak.

"Please, you do not have to be afraid of me. I am not going to attack you." It grimaced. "Not that I could at the moment. I am very thankful that you have helped me, although" it smiled weakly, "you frightened me pretty much as well."

Tally could only nod. Finally she found her voice again.

"What… who are you?"

"My name is Splinter". He stretched out his left, uninjured hand. Tally approached reluctantly and gripped it in the end.

"Tally Brown". Splinter lowered his head in a bow.

"Again, I want to thank you for your help. But where exactly am I?"

"This is my holiday place on Long Island, New York."

Splinter nodded.

"Then I am not that far from home."

"Do you live in New York?" asked Tally. Splinter nodded.

"I was …" he paused and seemed unsure, "involved in a fight. I fell from a ship. I feared for my life."

"I found you out by the rocks".

"Thank you very much for your help, Miss Brown. I owe you my life. Who knows what would have happened if someone else- or anyone at all- would have found me."

"You can call me Tally", she offered, still a little bit unsure what she should think about this situation- having a speaking rat in her living room. Splinter smiled.

"Thank you".

" May I ask you, what exactly you are, or…"

Splinter waved aside the unspoken question.

"No, it is all right." And he told her his story, but did not mention his sons. This woman had rescued him, but that was no reason to take a risk.

Tally listened eagerly.

"Then you have to thank that Foot Ninja for your unwillingly bath".

Splinter agreed.

Suddenly Tally jumped up. Splinter shied back, startled.

"Sorry. But you wanted something to eat, didn´t you? What kind of soup?"

Splinter's features eased.

"You need not go to any special trouble."

"No, it´s okay. I´m hungry, too." She left the room. Splinter looked after her. He could not explain why, but he felt that he could trust this woman.

Tally stood before the oven, a stock pot in one hand, a package of instant soup in the other, and looked at the phone in the kitchen. She could – and should- call someone, and they would take this creature, no, Splinter, she reminded herself, away.

And then? They would bring him to a lab, or something else. He was a scientific sensation. But…

She sighed and cooked the soup.

Ten minutes later Tally came back with two dishes of soup. Splinter had dozed off on the sofa, but awoke immediately. He was really hungry. Amused, Tally saw the content of Splinter's dish disappear. She went to the kitchen, came back with the stock pot and filled his dish again. Splinter seemed to be abashed.

"Please excuse my table manners, but.."

"It´s okay", she interrupted. "You must be really hungry". Splinter nodded.

When they both had finished their meal, Tally brought the dishes back into the kitchen. As she returned to the living room, she saw that Splinter, sitting upright, had waited for her.

"You should lay down again. You´re still pretty weak".

"I did not tell you the whole truth before. I was not the only one who came in contact with the ooze…"

So Splinter told his story again, but this time he mentioned his sons, April and Casey, and told a few of their adventures. His voice became weaker and croakier and the doctor in Tally was tempted to interrupt him, but she wanted to hear his story. The evening had worn on, as he finally fell silent.

"There are others like you? Why didn´t you tell me that before?"

He didn´t look at her.

"I was unsure if I could trust you."

She smiled.

"And now you are sure?"

"Yes", he answered firmly, "somehow I know that I can trust you."

Tally laughed insecurely.

"Well, I´m flattered". Then she got serious again. "But you should rest now. You are not fine and I don,t like the croakiness of your voice. Sounds as if you have bronchitis or something coming on." She gently pushed him back on the sofa and fetched him a few extra pillows. "Good night. I sleep in the second room on the right side. If you feel worse, you will alert me, okay?"

Splinter nodded. Then he closed his eyes. Obviously he was very exhausted.

Tally left the room silently. She passed the phone.

He had said he trusted her.

She wouldn´t betray him.


	3. Keep Searching!

_Hi! This will be just a short chapter. University started again and so I don't have much time to write. I have an internship at the moment- a dissection practical. I'm happy that I'm in the first group, in which I have to dissect frogs, because the second group will dissect rats! _

_Thanks again to Cynlee for reading and correcting, and thanks for the reviews!_

_Keep Searching!_

Crash!

"Damned stupid _fucking_ device!"

"Donatello!" Leonardo was shocked. Was that his younger techno-geek brother? Don has smashed the computer keyboard with his fist. He buried his face in his hands.

"I can't find him. I just can't find anything at all!"

"Donnie." Leo laid a hand on his shoulder. "Keep cool. I'm sure we'll find him. Keep searching. Have you gone through everything?" Donatello nodded exhausted.

"The whole night and half the day. Police data, TV news channel, newspapers, everything! If someone would have found a "strange looking animal" he has not reported it."

"I think in this special case, no news good news." April had entered the lair. "I've hacked into the computer system of the coast guard. There was a report about the ship the Foot were on, but nothing about Splinter. I'm sorry."

"Thanks", sighed Leo. He looked at Don, who was nearly asleep over his damaged keyboard. "Go to bed. You have done everything you could. It doesn't help Sensei to stay awake by force. We might have to fight later, so we will need to be up to full power."

Don was too tired to protest. His brothers had searched at the beach, around the harbor and in the city with the Shellcycle and the Battleshell, but they had taken turns and slept between their rounds. Only Don had stayed awake the whole night long, though he was still exhausted from their fight with the Foot. Slowly he went to his room.

"Something new from the others?" asked April. Leonardo shook his head.

"Mikey is in the Battleshell and Raph is searching together with Casey on their bikes. They have been through the harbor district at least three times, and Raph suggested breaking into the harbor police department. I told him 'No', but you know him. He nearly got caught. Sometimes I really could kill him!"

"He meant well."

"I know, but he put us all in great danger and Master Splinter as well. What _if _some official bureau has him and got a report from the attack on the police department? They would move him to another, more secure, place, and it would be even harder for us to find him."

"You're sure that he is in some kind of government facility, aren't you?"

Leo sighed.

"He must have been washed ashore along the coast. The ship hadn't been that far away from it. And there was nothing in the news about a strange creature, so he must be in the hands of the government."

"Or the Foot," suggested April. "But I've hacked into their system as well. I didn't discover anything about any prisoners they would have brought in last night."

"That doesn't mean anything at all. They know you hacked their system before. I'm sure they wouldn't want the same thing to happen twice. Shredder's evil, but not stupid. You know where their current headquarters is located?"

"Yes. I can..."

She was interrupted by the return of the other Turtles and Casey. The look on their faces said everything. No sign of their Master.

"We've even been to a few animal shelters and that stuff," referred Casey, "but there was absolutely nothing, just a few normal rats."

"Sensei is so stubborn-- he's always unhookin' Dons tracking devices," added Raphael.

"Guys, we have two primary targets at the moment," stated Leo. "The government facilities and the Foot headquarters. But someone has to go to beach and keep on searching there. Maybe Master Splinter hunkered down and is too hurt to come back to us. Don and I will turn the Foot Headquarters upside down. Mikey, you and April will take the Battleshell and drive down to the beach. Maybe you can use Donatello's heat searching devices, as well as keep an eye on the harbor. Raph, you and Casey will take care of the government facilities."

He looked around at the four worried faces. Deep in their hearts they all believed that is was useless, that they couldn't find him--but they musn't give up. _Father_ wouldn't give up and would do anything to free them.

"When do we start?" asked Casey. "Not sure if ya noticed it, but's its a bright sunny day out there. You guys can't walk around in the open."

"We will start this evening. We need the time for further information", answered Leo. "But for now, we should all rest. It was a hard night and the next one will be even harder."

They all went to their bedrooms. April went back to her apartment, but Casey decided to stay in the Lair and made himself comfortable on the couch.

A few hours later, Don awoke. He had had bad nightmares about his father who was being chased by enormous sharks.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, Don", he muttered to himself, "there aren't any sharks swimming in the harbor."

He went to the kitchen, made himself a sandwich, switched on the TV- maybe something would be on the News- and jumped over the back of the couch.

"Ahhhhhhh! You…you…you…I´ll kill ya!" Casey, so rudely awakened by a large turtle landing on him, jumped after Don and chased him through the Lair.

"Casey, I´m sorry!" panted Don. " I didn't know you were there, truly, I´m sorry, I…. aaaaaaahhhhhh!"

They both smashed in Raphael, who had gotten up because of the noise they were making.

"You two… I was sleeping!" And he threw a punch at Don, who ducked so that Raph hit Casey.

"Hey!" Casey grabbed Raph's shoulders and wrestled him to the floor. "Are you nuts?"

They rolled over the floor, wrestling and cursing, Donatello (to his relief) forgotten. Leonardo appeared behind him.

"What the shell…?"

"And that was a high-class kick by Raph "The Razor", immediately answered by a really mean looking punch from Bogeyman Casey, who…"

"Mikey, stop it," Leo said, "and you two as well. We have bigger problems. Let's see if we can find the floor plans of the buildings in which we have to search."

April arrived at that moment and came up to the boys. She had heard that last part.

"Almost done, Leo. I have the plans of the Foot HQ, especially the prison areas, and a way to get in. Their new security system is pretty bad. Good that Stockman isn't working for the Shredder anymore."

"Fine. Donatello, can you search via the Internet for the other plans?"

"Difficult. Those are government computers and they have a better security system. But I´ll do my very best."

RRRRinng!

The telephone!

For a moment they all froze. Casey and April were there; who else knew their number? Then they ran all together to the phone. Leo won the struggle for the telephone receiver and lifted it.

"Hello?"

Before he could say more, there was a _click_ at the other end. Disconnected. The others looked at him.

"Who was it? Master Splinter? Leo, tell us!" Don tried to grab the receiver. Angrily Leo crashed it on the floor.

"Dunno. Disconnected." The disappointment overwhelmed them. For a moment they had all hoped…

"But who else could it have been?" asked Mikey. "Nobody else knows our number!"

"Master Splinter would have said were he is," said Don.

"Maybe he couldn't," Michaelangelo argued, unwilling to give up.

"Yeah, he can phone but can't talk," jeered Raph.

"Raph, stop it." Leo appeared to be calm, but inside he was seething. "Everybody knows what to do. Get busy finding the information we still need, because we will start our search at sunset!"


	4. Betrayal

_So, up to Chapter Four! This will take a few days, I fear, but I have three days free- not cutting dead animals, thanks to the Lord- and maybe I can finish this chapter this weekend. Just in case: In Germany there were only the first and second seasons in TV and that´s why the only things I know about Bishop etc. are from other fan fictions. _

_My story will deal in later chapters with Bishop and will not follow the official story line as much as I know from fan fictions and from Let's say "Glory of Love" plays shortly after "Bishop's Gambit". _

_Thank you very much for the reviews. It's really nice to get some kind of "reward" for writing. I searched in the internet, but there are only TWO German Turtles fan sites, and no one has fan fiction! And here are no comics, no magazines, no new episodes and so on, I have to buy everything from the U.S.A. I demand equal rights for all Turtle fans!_

_Very thanks again to Cynlee, you know why…for everyone who does not know, see the first three chapters._

_P.S.: Don't be so angry with Tally, will you?_

_TMNT is the property of Mirage. Tally Brown and other Original Characters are the property of the author._

**Chapter 4: Betrayal**

Flying. Falling. He couldn't see. He couldn't breath! Desperately he gasped for breath, he struggled for air, but no, his throat was choked, he would suffocate! Pain! So much pain. His head was burning. He wasn't able to move. Stabbing pains shot through his muscles. He coughed a few times, sending new waves of pain through his body, especially through his lungs. He was half aware now that he was lying in some kind of bed. He didn't know where he was or what had happened and he didn't care at the moment. He just couldn't. His head ached too much.

Something cold touched his forehead and instinctively he winced. Then he finally decided to open his eyes. Feverishly he looked at a young woman, who anxiously peered back. For a moment he wondered who she was, but then he decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. He closed his eyes again. It was too exhausting to keep them open.

"Splinter?"

Faintly he heard a voice.

"Are you awake?"

It took a while for him to realize that the question was directed at him. His memory came back in fragments. He was hurt by the Foot. This women had rescued him, and he had…

_Stupid, stupid, stupid rat,_ he thought. Must have been the fever. He should never has told this human about his sons!

_Tally Brown, that was her name._

He tried to speak, but the only thing that came out of his throat was a dry croak. So he nodded his head to answer her question. Bad idea. He instantly grabbed his head with his left hand. He was not even sure which way was up and which was down.

"Shh. It's okay. You have had a very high fever. You still have, actually. Just rest."

He managed to open his eyes again and tried once more to speak, but his voice failed. He coughed and this time he tasted blood.

Tally lifted a glass of water to his mouth.

"Drink this. It's a mild analgesic. I'm sorry, but I didn't bring anything stronger with me. However, for now it'll be enough."

Splinter refused. He didn't want to drink anything at all, but Tally mildly forced him to swallow the liquid. After a few minutes he felt even dizzier than before. But the pain subsided and he slowly fell asleep. He barely noticed that a clinical thermometer was put under his tongue, then he felt nothing more.

Tally wiped away the sweat from her forehead and kept an eye on her patient. Last night she was sure that he would die. When she had come out around midnight to see how he was doing, he was barely breathing. It had been a very long, hard and exhausting night. His fever had risen and risen; he had coughed blood and had fought against her as she had tried to keep him calm. She had a long scratch from his claws at her upper arm. She knew that she could not blame him for her injury, but she gave him a mild barbiturate as well, just in case. Even in his fever he was too strong for her and she was just glad that he hadn't bit her; rat bites are serious enough, but he was huge! She was again a little bit afraid of him, but what should she do? She couldn't just set him out off the door.

Then she had an idea. She flipped the telephone book open and searched for the name Splinter had mentioned yesterday, "April O´Neil". But she had no luck. There were too many listings under "O´Neil", including three "April"s, five "A."s, and a lot of entries with no first name at all. Should she call them all? And what could she say? "Hello, my name is Tally Brown, M.D. I live in NYC and I found a giant talking rat yesterday who said he knows you." Oh yes, _that_ would go over very well.

She sighed and put the telephone book away. Looks like she would have to care for her strange patient a little bit longer.

Her stomach mumbled and reminded her that she had not eaten anything since the soup the evening before. She yawned and went to the kitchen. This was too stressful for a vacation. Carrying heavy animals, fighting against them, staying awake the whole night-- the only thing she wanted right now was a long hot bath and then to sleep until noon of the next day. But unfortunately there was a big, talking, heavily injured rat in her living room, ruining her new sofa.

She sighed and discover that she had forgotten to go shopping. The only things left in her fridge were a salad, a little bit of milk and two calorie reduced yogurts. Angrily she banged the door shut. Was there anything more what could go wrong?

Tally went back to the living room. Splinter seemed to be sleeping more or less peacefully, though his breathing was still rather labored, and now and again he moved disquietingly, struggling against the blanket. She was unsure if she could risk leaving him home alone, yet she needed supplies.

Finally she decided to risk it.

At the front door she hesitated, then she went back and wrote a note in case he would awaken. As she put in on the table, she noticed the little red spots on the blanket.

Damn!

She hated to be that insensitive, but it seemed as if she wouldn´t need the supplies and bandages that urgently. She felt his pulse and listened to his breathing again. After that, she was pretty sure that he wouldn't survive the next night, except through a miracle. He seemed not only to have broken ribs, but internal injuries as well. He would bleed to death and she could not help him.

Nevertheless she decided to stay.

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Splinter awoke late that afternoon. His head felt a little bit clearer than in the morning, but he was still not able to speak. Then he noticed Tally. She sat in the armchair like the first time when he awoke and she was sleeping. She looked worried and exhausted.

Splinter felt pity and guilt. He knew that this whole situation wasn't that easy for the young woman. Then he took notice of the note. He managed to grab it and saw the pencil beneath it. He had an idea. The damage to him was great, he could sense, and he didn't want to burden her any longer than necessary. It was very difficult for him to write with his left hand, not to mention doing so while in a reclining position where he couldn´t see exactly what he was doing, but he finally was successful.

Then he waited for her to wake up.

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Tally yawned and opened her eyes. This little nap had been very refreshing. She looked to Splinter, who returned the look.

"Oh, fine. You´re awake. I´m sorry, but I have to go shopping. How are you feeling? Can I leave you alone for an hour?"

Splinter nodded and stretched his hand out.

"Still not able to speak? What's that?"

Tally grabbed at the piece of paper. In a very scrawly script were a few numbers written.

"Is that a telephone number?"

Splinter nodded again and held his left hand to his ear as if he would hold a telephone.

"Okay, I understand. Wait a minute."

Tally took the telephone and dialed the number.

Ring,ring…

DING-DONG! Suddenly the doorbell rang. Tally without thinking hung up without finishing the call. She looked at the clock. It was nearly six PM. Who could that be?

She sighed.

"We´ll try later. Let me first take a look at who's out there."

She opened the front door-- and stared directly into a bunch of red roses. A smiling face appeared behind them.

"Tally, dear, I couldn't stand it any longer without you!"

Robert Crowe bent forward to kiss her, but Tally turned her head aside. Now she was really in trouble!

"Robert, sorry, but this is a pretty bad moment to visit me. I was just going out shopping and…"

"Tally, it's raining cats and dogs. Won't you even offer me a cup of coffee?"

And before Tally could protest, he went through the door and into the living room. Tally leaned heavily against the door frame and waited for a astonished shout or something else.

"Tally!"

Right!

She followed her "main squeeze" (as he liked to refer to himself) and thought about what to tell him.

"Look, I found him…Eh?"

"You found what?" asked Robert.

Tally looked about wonderingly. Splinter was nowhere to be seen.

"Did you sleep here last night?" Robert pointed at the blanket.

"Eh, no, I just had a nap before. The weather makes me tired."

"I see. Hey, what´s that? Are you bleeding?" He had discovered the little red spots.

"No. Don´t know what that is. Maybe juice?"

"Mmm". Suspiciously he sniffed it. "I think it's blood. Are you sure that you're all right?"

"Yes, I am. You're not the only doctor around here, are you?"

"Sorry, dear. I was just worried. Is a nice cappuccino apology enough?" He went straight to the kitchen.

"No, Robert, it's okay, really! I'll make us something hot to drink, just sit down!"

But he had already reached the kitchen. And again, Tally breathed a sigh of relief, for Splinter apparently was not there.

But where could he be? He was definitely in no condition to walk and even if it were so, he couldn't get that far. She must stop Robert from walking around the entire house!

"Rob, please, not that I'm not glad to see you, but it's a really bad time. Would you please go and come back tomorrow? I really have no time at the moment, I´m pretty busy!"

"Busy? You´re here on vacation, remember? I came all the way from the city just to see you, sweetheart. You know what a fight it is to close to practice for only a few hours. And now you send me away?"

He looked at her, smiling warmly, and her resistance melted like butter in the sun. Maybe she should tell him.

"You send me away, alone in the cold, cruel rain," he continued, "and you let me starve; you don't even offer me a cappuccino…"

She couldn't help herself and snorted with laughter.

"Okay, okay, you win. I suppose one cappuccino will be possible. Just go back in the living room, I´ll finish it."

He was halfway across the floor, when he suddenly stopped, a startled look in his face.

"What was that?"

"Hmmm?" Tally called from behind him.

"There. In your sleeping room. I heard a sound."

He looked at Tally, suspiciously.

"Is there anybody in? Was that the reason why you wanted to send me away?"

"Rob…" she couldn't look in his face. "It's not like you think. I found a hurt… animal yesterday. It has been injured in the storm and I've been caring for it."

He looked still very distrustful.

"A hurt animal, eh?"

Tally nodded.

"Yes, but…DON´T OPEN THAT DOOR!"

"Why not if it's just 'a hurt animal'?" Robert looked very sad. "I thought you would trust me more, Tally. If you want to cancel our relationship, you can say it. I thought we would always be honest with each other. But maybe it's good that we can set things straight right now before we get into our relationship any deeper."

"Robert! Really! You must believe me. It's not like you think."

"No? Then let me just say your guest that he won't have to fear rivalry any longer!"

He laid his hand on the doorknob, turned it- ignoring Tally's worried face- opened the door- and saw nothing. Tally breathed a sigh of relief, but unfortunately Robert noticed it. "So somebody **was** here, hmmm? Or somebody is **still** here. Aha!"

The blanket over the bed was crumpled up, as if it had been hastily pulled aside. Robert dragged the blanket from the bed, tossed it on the floor, knelt down and peered under the bed. First he saw nothing-- and then, a furry heap.

"Another blanket?"

Tally clenched her teeth.

"Robert…"

He grabbed at the "blanket", but it MOVED AWAY!

"Uuuaaaahhhhh!" Still on his knees, he jumped backward. "What…what…WHAT IS IT?"

Tally sighed.

"I told you I found someone yesterday, but animal is not quite the right description, you know."

She knelt down to help Splinter crawl from under the bed. It was an impressive effort, she thought, for him to come the whole way from the living room to her bedroom, and in his condition! Probably he had crawled on all fours...

She tried to help him to stand up, but he sank down immediately. His eyes were closed and he breathed heavily. She more or less dragged him into to bed and pushed the blanket over him. Meanwhile, Robert managed to regain his composure.

"That is unbelievable! Tally, were did you find it? What kind of creature exactly is it? Was that **its** blood on the blanket? So it has red blood--"

"ROBERT!" Tally went angry. "He is no dumb animal! He does understand every word you say. His name is Splinter and he is an intelligent living being! You have no right to speak in this way about him!" she said, ignoring her memory of the thoughts she'd had when she'd first seen him.

"Splinter? You mean it, ähm, he can speak?"

Tally sat down at the side of the bed. She looked into Splinter's face. His eyes were open now, but it was obvious that he would lose the fight against sleep soon. He slightly shook his head.

"Not at the moment. He has some kind of bronchitis and a few other injuries. Better to let him sleep."

She stood up, took Robert's hand and tried to pull him out of the room.

But Robert was as fascinated now as he had been frightened before.

"Have you told anybody about him?"

"No, I haven't. Come out of there!"

Finally she managed to pull him out of the room. She closed the door and they both went to the living room in silence. Then Robert spoke again.

"Tally, that's our big chance in there! We could make a fortune out of him! I have a cousin, he works for a big circus--"

"You don't really want to…" Tally was speechless. "Haven't you listened to me? He's no freak or monstrosity!"

"Tally, just think about it. This was a gift from above."

"NO! No more words about it!"

"But Tally, I…"

"OUT! Out of my house! How can you suggest this? He does not look like it, but he is human! Go! Immediately! And don't come back again!"

She stood up and pointed at the door. Her whole body was trembling. She NEVER thought that her tender-hearted Robert could be that cruel!

Robert nodded and walked to the door.

"You will regret this, my dear."

Then he was gone.

Tally sat down; shaken and trembling, she started to cry.

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Splinter woke up. It took a while to gather his thoughts in the dark room. Then he remembered. Not the living room any more, but Tally's bedroom. Vaguely he asked himself were she was sleeping now. He cuddled himself in the pillows. His body, especially his head, did still hurt very much, but he thought that his fever was sinking. At least he was able to finally think. He was slowly drifting off into slumber again when he suddenly heard a noise outside.

Someone was out there; had turned the doorknob.

_Surely Tally_, he assumed, half asleep.

Suddenly the light was switched on, blinding him. He raised one arm to cover his face, but someone grabbed him, pulled him out of the bed and twisted his unbroken arm behind his back. Splinter whined in pain. He heard a voice speaking-- it reminded him of the voice of Tally's previous visitor.

"Have I promised you to much?"

Another voice.

"This is fantastic! All agreed. Ten thousand now and twenty percent of the gains. We'll make a fortune, I guarantee! Where exactly did you find this creature? There will be no one else suddenly claiming rights to it, will there?"

"No, don't worry! My girlfriend found it out there. It was nearly dead. You'll have to be a little bit careful with it, it's hurt, but it'll make it. Tally first wanted to keep it, but finally she agreed that it would be better this way. After all, it could be dangerous."

The man who held Splinter nodded.

"We'll be careful. Just tell me again if you find something else like this!"

Splinters heart sank! He had thought he could trust her, and she had sold him out!

And she knows about his family! Desperately he tried to break free.

"Hey! This beast is pretty strong!"

Splinter managed to free his arm, but he fell immediately to the floor, still weak with injury and illness. The man behind him set his knee on his back and pinned him to the floor. He couldn't react as the man hit his head so hard that he nearly fainted.

Vaguely he eventually noticed that his hands and feet were shackled. Two men lifted him like a sack of potatoes and carried him out of the house. Outside a van was parked. They quickly stashed him into the back, and drove away.

Even if Splinter could manage to get his hands free, there would be no way out of this prison. The van was barred from the inside and smelled like wild animal.

So Splinter huddled up as good as he could and surrendered to his fate-- for the time being.

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Puh, finally ready with this chapter! Needed much more time than I thought. Please please please review, I need the encouragement!


	5. Ratquest

Here I am again! After a very long time, I know. I´m sorry. And ashamed. Really. University took to much time the week, and right now, I should learn, because there´ll be two exams, but instead, I sit long after midnight at my desk, with a cup of hot tea and some uneatable stone-hard peaches, and try to write a new chapter. Even had to reread my last chapter, otherwise I wouldn´t have known where to begin. Puhh! But the show must go on…

Thanks again to Cynlee for correcting!

Chapter 5: Rat Quest

"Leo!"…pant,pant…"Please tell me"…pant, pant…"again whose"…pant, pant, pant … "STUPID IDEA THIS WAS!"

"Not mine! I wanted to go through the sewers, remember? You wanted to come from above!"

"Right now I think this is just an academic question."

The two brothers ran for their lives- with nearly the complete New Yorker Foot clan at their heels.

So far, they had managed to infiltrate the new Foot HQ- fine. They climbed on the roof to enter the building-as Donnie argued: "IF they've caught Sensei, they will expect us to come, and they will expect us to come from the sewers."

So far, so good.

Then problems started!

Of course, Don managed to switch off the security system, so that they could open a rooftop window without alerting the whole bunch of Ninja. But then one of his inventions failed. The small hook, which attached their climbing rope to the housetop, wouldn´t detach when Donatello pressed the button on his remote control.

Fan-tas-tic!

Possibility number one: One of the Turtles must climb up again, remove the rope and hope, that the other one would be able to search- and rescue, if he was here- their Master alone.

Possibility number two: They would just leave the rope dangling where it was and hope, that every eventually incoming Foot Ninja was either blind or to stupid to recognize what a rope hanging down from an open window might mean.

After a short, fervid and much too loud argument Don prevailed. Searching alone was nearly impossible, and for sure the Foot would notice the switch off of the security system in this section, so this was their only chance. Leonardo had no other choice than to agree. He, too, was so worried about their father, that he didn´t care much about the risk at the moment.

And they made it- partly. They managed to hide within the airducts system as the alert broke out.

"See, Leo?" whispered Donatello. "I told you it would be easy. In and out, no risk. They will never find us!"

Leo was not convinced.

They reached the prison section undetected, but there was no sign of their master- not even in the high- security section. They weren´t sure if this were good or bad news. Oh yes, they found a few rats in a lab, but none of them was theirs. Disgustedly Leo sliced the cages open with his katana.

"Let´s hurry out of here! I´m sure Master Splinter isn´t here, and it wouldn´t help him if we get hurt or caught!"

Donatello nodded, bent over a computer terminal. "Nothing about if they caught him, just that a soldier has managed to throw him overboard." He curled up his face. "His family got a high reward." He stood up. "Let´s see what the others found out. This place is making me sick!-Ohhh!"

"What?" Leo swirled around as Don pointed at the door.

"Are you so eager to join your furry master?" asked Hun, a perfidious grin in his face, blocking the door frame completely with his body. "I´m so gonna to enjoy fulfilling your last wish!" And he jumped forward.

At the last moment, Don leaped sideways and Hun struck the computer desk. Unfortunately this stopped him only for a few seconds. But the door frame was blocked again-more or less, the few Foot were not really a problem, just an annoyance. Leo and Don went through them like a knife through hot butter. One or two or three or even a half dozen Foot Ninja were no challenge- but the trouble was…

"Why do this bozos always appear in packs?" complained Donatello. "Never ever heard something about that the bad guys are only allowed to attack the good guys one by one?"

"Later, Don", responded Leo and wrenched his brother down. A few shuriken swirled just a few inches over their heads through the air.

They couldn´t escape the same way they'd entered. They would be a perfect target dangling at that rope. Not that this would matter at the moment, they wouldn´t find the room anyway. Although Donatello had learned the floor plan by heart, they had irredeemable lost their way.

Right know they just hoped that Shredder wasn´t at home. That would be the cherry on the cake.

"There!" Don gestured to an open metal door. They hastened through, Leo banging it closed immediately- not a second too soon, as he heard how shuriken and katana met the metal. He stared at the closed door.

"We definitely need a Plan B!"

"Leo…"

"Don, I´m thinking-"

"But Leo…"

"Not now, Don!" Leo kneeled down to examine the door. It looked very solid, so it should hold a few minutes. Meanwhile, he could-

"LEO!"

"What?" he snapped and turned around, "Oh!"

"Yes", said Don and looked at the tank, "seems as if we already have a Plan B!"

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"… and I bet it´ll take weeks to clean this place", Don snorted with laughter, "It wasn´t that easy to drive that stupid thing, so I damaged the other vehicles, the walls, the garage door and a few Foot which tried to stop us!"

Everyone in the Lair listened eagerly – and laughing- to Don's report, except Leonardo, who polished his swords in silence.

"We parked it right before the Police Department. Geez, I would have liked to see their faces. Imagine, to find a tank in the entrance! Wonder why the Foot needed it."

"Who cares", Leo's calm voice cut down the giggling atmosphere at once. "No one found a sign of Master Splinter, and that's the only thing which counts at the moment."

April sighed.

"Mikey and me searched on the whole waterside. We drove along the road four times and went in the bushes and so on, but there was no sign- no footprints, no fragments of a robe, no flushed gulls. After the fourth round, an officer from the coast guard took notice of us, so we couldn´t continue, but I´m pretty sure he isn´t there."

Leo nodded.

"And you two?"

Raph and Casey shook their heads.

"We searched for a highly decorated guy, towed him in a back road and threatened him to trash the crap out of him if he wouldn´t tell us where our furry rat friend is," Casey reported, "Then Raph wrenched his trench coat. The dumbcase pissed himself, but he couldn´t even speak any more. If he had known about Splinter, he would´ve told us."

Leonardo stood silent for a moment. Then he spoke.

"You really showed yourself to an army officer?"

Raphael shrugged.

"Thought it was the fastest way."

"FOR HEAVENS SAKE! HAVE YOU TOTALLY LOST YOUR MIND?"

"Hey, I got the information we needed, no one got hurt, so what´s the problem? And believe me, with regard to his trousers, he had had other problems. No one would believe him!"

"I just hope you´re right, bro," said Don. Leonardo was so furious that he couldn´t speak. "I just hope you´re right."

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The day proceeded more or less calmly, partly because they were all too tired to argue and partly because Leo refused to speak with Raphael, which stopped their usual fighting.

Professor Honeycutt came over. Don had fallen asleep over his keypad and woke up startled.

"What? Oh, it´s just you. I´m sorry, Honeycutt, that I didn´t come as promised, but Sensei is missing and we were pretty busy in finding him."

Honeycutt peered at the monitor.

"You didn´t find him? Maybe I can help. Where have you searched so far?"

Donatello gave a status report.

"And currently Leo thinks we shouldn´t go out during daylight because the Army could be searching for us."

"This was alarmingly careless of Raphael."

"I´ve hacked into their computer system. Nothing about an officer being attacked by an alien, monster or anything else."

"And what are you planning to do now?"

Donatello sighed and stood up.

"I do not even have a hint of an idea. He could be anywhere" he gulped, "or fish food."

Raphael, meanwhile, strolled through the sewer tunnels, kicking thoughtlessly at cans and pieces of garbage. After a few tunnels he stopped and looked up. From his position he saw only two feet dangling from a pipe. For a moment he paused, unsure whether he should disturb his baby bro or not. They all loved their master dearly, were afraid and missed him, but his youngest brother still needed- more than the others- his father, now more then ever.

So Raph climbed on that pipe too and perched down next to his brother. Neither of them spoke, they just sat there, listen to the scurrying rats, the trickling of water and letting their legs dangle. Raphael could see by the traces in his brothers face that he has been crying. Very carefully, he placed a hand at Mikey´s shoulder; his brother immediately turned around and buried his face at Raph's chest, sobbing soundlessly, and Raph, the cold-blooded fighter, who could sometimes _kill_ his brother because of his pranks-- Raph hugged his brother tightly and stayed like this until the evening,

Leonardo stood before the closed doors of his master's room. Normally they just went in when invited, but this day was no one in his room, who could say with a warm, calm voice, which let all sorrows disappear: Please enter, my son.

He gulped hard and felt guilty as he opened the door. Splinters bed was neatly made, the floor was clean, the few books, candles and vases were placed accurately at racks.

Leonardo knelt down before the futon bed of his Sensei. Carefully he flattened the sheets, although it was unnecessary. Beneath the pillow laid two hackneyed, often read books, carefully repaired with sticky tape. Leonardo knew them both very well. The book at the top, oh he remembered so well when he first read it, and then again and again, until he knew it complete by heart: The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He was sure that Splinter knew this book as well inside out, but he still liked to read it. And the other book…

It was _the_ book, Splinters first, the Art illustrated book he had fished out of the sewers, the book after which he had named his sons.

Leo's eyes ran over the pages. Though Splinter was one of the most clean people he know – he was sure that his master would never touch a book with dirty hands- the borders of the pages had gray edges.

He read a few sentences here and there, remembering the time when he was younger and used to sit at Splinters lap, listening to him read out loud, or tell stories. He had to fight for this place; there were three brothers who wanted to be as near to their father as they could as well, and only two (until they grew and then it was only one) could sit on his lap. Splinter told them to take turns, but sometimes, he snuck into his father's room and listened not to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but to Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi.

Carefully he placed the books back. He didn´t know what to do. He was _sure_ that his father was alive, he must be alive, but he'd fallen in the water and Leo hadn´t rescued him…he had failed. He had let down his father.

Closing his eyes, he got into the Lotus position and started to meditate. He still could feel his Sensei in this room, and if there was any chance to get even the glimpse of a vision which would help him to find Splinter, he would get it in this room.

The afternoon passed, as well as the evening.

Donatello stood before the freezer. He was not really hungry, but he had the feeling that he should eat at least a little bit. He hadn´t seen Leo for the rest of the day, probably he was meditating somewhere, and Raph and Mikey were out as well. Maybe he should go alone or with the Professor and Leatherhead to search again. Just as he closed the door of the freezer- he decided that he was really not hungry- the door of the Lair opened up and two of his brothers entered. It was nearly midnight.

The three Turtles stood in the kitchen and looked at each other.

"And?" Raphael was the first to speak. "What now?"

Don shrugged.

"Don´t know. Did anyone see Leo?"

His brothers shook their heads.

"Fine. I do really not know how we would best proceed. I have been on the Internet the whole day, and there was absolutely nothing, not even the usual " I saw an alien and it tried to kidnap me" rubbish."

Michaelangelo went to the Living Area and switched on the TV. Raph sighed.

"Mikey´s really in a bad mood. Never saw him in this state, not even during the time the Utroms had had Master Splinter."

"That was another situation", said Don sadly, "at least we were sure that he was not… you know". Raph nodded, then they joined Mikey.

Round about four o´clock in the morning Leonardo left Splinters room.

The others didn´t comment it. They all had their own ways to deal with their loss.

Leonardo sat on the couch next to Raphael and looked at the TV. There was a late-night wrestling show, but none of his brothers paid attention.

"Maybe…" he tried to begin, but he was abruptly interrupted. Don's security system had activated and a siren was whining trough the whole lair. "Donnie, what´s up?"

"There´s someone in the warehouse", answered his brother watching at a monitor, "a woman, I would say."

"Uniformed?" growled Leo and glared at Raphael, who did not even look bashful.

"No, normal clothes, but she looks pretty hounded. Hey!"

"What?" his brothers asked unison.

"Listen to the loudspeakers".

And they could all hear her voice: "Raphael?"

"Okay", said Leonardo grimly. "Raph, you come with me above. Don, Mikey, you stay here. Gotta go."

He and Raph went to the elevator. At least it was an interruption out of their sorrows- even though an unwelcome one.

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Okay, I know, much too long time since my last update, but I hope the next one will be sooner. After all, I had to get Splinter out of that cage, because I´m the one who brought him in it- literally. Please, please, please review, I will write faster the more reviews I get, I promise!

And I will write slower the fewer I get (yes, that was a threat -smile-)!


	6. Splinter Lost

Got a very long, very nice review by Reijiro and so I think I have to go on. If there are any logical mistakes in this chapter, I´m sorry, but it´s long after midnight and I´ve learned biochemistry until now. What can be a better relaxing break than writing a fic? (is meant ironically, )

Just for the record: This chapter will describe the same day as the previous one, but from Splinters or Tally's point of view. The night, in which Splinter was captured by Rob is the night in which the Turtles search for him.

For all Splinter-Fans out there: I know that a few of the thoughts and expressions are absolutely untypical for our wise Sensei, but he´s pretty ill and hopping mad, and so it´s understandingly when his thoughts are a little bit more, let´s say, Raphael-like, okay?

Criticism and other opinions are always welcome!

Thanks again for beta reading and correcting, Cynlee, and for the advertise at Stealthy Stories!

And thanks to everyone who sent me reviews…or leastwise read this.. without reviews…growl!

Chapter 6: Splinter Lost

Tally didn´t know how long she sat there crying, but it felt like hours.

Robert! Oh, Rob.

She still couldn´t believe it. She remembered when she'd first got to know him. She was taking a walk in the Central Park, and had seen a boy who was crying his eyes out- apparently his dog had stumbled over some wire some idiot had disposed of there. And kneeling right before the dog was this well-looking man in expensive white trousers- knees in the sludge, the trousers would never be clean again- ripping his shirt in stripes for a makeshift dressing.

She hadn´t been able to move on. She had stood there and watched, smiling mildly, as this obviously medically skilled man acted as vet to the dog, not caring for the mud or the blood on his precious clothing. From the distance, she wasn´t able to hear what he had said to the boy, but after a while, the child had stopped crying, and later on, the boy had gone away with a limping dog.

There had been this strong, intuitive feeling of "this-is-Mr.-Right", so that she hadn´t been really surprised, when he had stood up, turned around, noticed her, smiled abashed and invited her to a cup of coffee.

It had been the way things should go, and now…

Tears fell again on her lap. Her jeans had a lot of similar dark spots. Looks like a new fashion trend, she thought absently. She felt so tired, exhausted and- empty.

She wanted to drive back to the City, now, wanted to be in her practice and work, even do the tax computation. But she had this iron rule never to bring her work along at her holiday apartment. Luckily, this time the work has come to her in form of a mutated rat- which was responsible for her break with Robert.

But maybe it was better this way. She had been able to take a look on his _real_ character, and she has definitely not liked what she has seen there.

Slowly she went through the floor and hesitated before her sleeping room.

Geez! After all, it was _her_ room! She opened the door a little bit more fiercely than she had planned it. Luckily her patient didn´t notice. He laid near the edge of the bed, shivering, his tail dangling to the floor and moving restlessly. Tally moved him gently in the midst of the bed and covered his body with the blanket. Splinter's eyes moved rapidly under his closed lids, he was shivering and muttering something incomprehensible.

"Shh", Tally said quietly and chuckled. It was obvious that he wasn´t young any more, but as he laid there sleeping, he looked so helpless- like a little child. She stretched out her hand and softly fondled his cheek. His fur was moist with sweat, but that didn´t disturb her. At his throat and behind his ears was it soft and silky. Around his snout he had a few silvery hairs.

She perched comfortably on the bed, leaned her back against the wall and placed Splinter's head in her lap. Placing her other arm across his breast, she continued stroking his face. Absently she looked at the opposite wall, speaking mildly to this fascinating being which has just being washed into her life.

"Don´t worry, I´ll not let him harm you. I won´t let anyone harm you. You´ll be fine, just wait, everything will become good, you´ll see."

She was half aware that she was speaking to him as if to a little child, but the sleeping rat seemed not to care. Splinter cuddled automatically deeper into her lap, seeking the warmth of her body, still shivering. Tally smiled, still stroking him. His breathing appeared to be a little bit steadier, his pulse was solid. This one was much tougher than he looked. His fever was still very high, but after a few days of bed rest and an antibiotic he should be okay. She pressed an ear on his breast. She could hear him breathing, but didn't notice the crackle that would indicate a punctured lung. Hopefully the blood was only from hurt mucosae.

He had stopped shivering. Now he laid really in her arms like a little child, but there was a gentle smile on his lips and his eyes weren´t moving that anxiously any more. She thought she could dare to leave him alone for an hour to buy the groceries she needed. It was already late, she would have to search for an all-night-shop, but she couldn´t bring herself to stand up.

Here and now was peace and in the outside world it was still raining like her heart was still arching. She smiled down at the furry heap in her lap and without thinking about it she bent down and pressed a light kiss on his forehead. For a moment she feared she had awakened him –how to explain?- but he only sighed and huddled against her. Carefully she stood up, whispering "I´ll be back soon, just have to buy a few things" and left the room.

She came back late in the night. It was a long ride to the next 24 hour supermarket, but she managed even to get a few rice noodles, miso and green tea. From what he has told her, he was Japanese, and she wanted to surprise him with a tastier meal than instant soup. The moon light was illuminating the gateway- so that she could see the deep skid marks at once. The groceries fell to the ground.

"Rob, you haven´t…"

She sprinted to the door- locked!

For a moment she breathed a sigh of relief, but then she remembered that Rob had a key as well. She barely managed to shift the key in the hole, tore the door open and dashed into her sleeping room--

Which was empty!

One minute she thought, he could have gone to the toilet or _anywhere_… then she noticed the dirty boot tracks at her carpet. Her legs weakened. Rob _had _made it. And Splinter was gone.

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After a while, Splinter couldn´t tell anymore if the rumbling and the wiggled vision came from his fever or from the van. When it finally stopped or at least weakened a bit, he relaxed and enjoyed the silence. In a far distant of his mind he knew that he was in really big trouble, but he couldn´t care less at the very moment. All he want was something, _anything_ to drink and then to sleep.

The doors of the van were opened and two men lifted him and carried him to a big cage, like the one a circus uses to hold lions.

"Wonder what kind of creature this is. Looks like a giant rat. Maybe it´s an escapee from a animal experiment lab?"

"Who cares. Just think of the money it´ll put in our pockets. It´s even better than the horse with the fifth leg we used to have. Heck, we could even pitch it as an alien!"

They laid him down in the cage. One of the men bend down and put a leather collar connected with a heavy chain around his neck. Then they untied him and left the cage.

Splinter laid motionless for a long time before he finally decided that he could move without collapsing.

Shakily he rose to his hands and feet and looked around the cage. It _stank_. Even with his illness it was an insult for his sensitive nose. He lifted a hand to his heck and then eyed the chain. Normally he would have handled this within a few minutes-- but then normally the men wouldn´t have been able to catch him at all.

He collapsed on the ground. It was covered with old, partly rotten straw. He curled up and rested his aching head at his forearm. At least they had untied him.

Suddenly the door was jolted and opened. He winced, frightened. Despite his usual sharp senses he hadn´t noticed that one of the men had come back. He carried two metal bowls and placed them in front of Splinter's snout. Splinter could smell the contents without looking: some kind of really terrible smelling animal food in the one and in the other- cold water!

The man remained in the cage and observed Splinter, so he didn´t dare to grab the bowl and lift it to his mouth. Instead, he bent over it and tried to drink like a dog- with the result, that he collapsed right into the bowl.

The man roared with laughter. Splinter wasn´t that amused; he was wet through and the night was cold, but the water had refreshed his animal spirits and he could think a little bit clearer. For sure it was safer in the moment to pretend to be a dumb animal- they wouldn´t be that watchful, and that would increase his chances to take flight.

Right now, a new bowl of water would be enough and luckily it was soon brought. This time he waited until the man vanished, then he raised it up, leaning against the cage bars, and emptied the bowl with shivery hands.

He analyzed the strength of the chain and decided that he should be able to bite it through- next night. All he wanted to do right now was to sleep.

But he couldn´t. Sleep wouldn´t come to him, he was too angry with himself and too worried about his family. What did this man say? _Tally first wanted to keep it, but finally she agreed that it would be better this way._

And he old, brainless idiot had trusted her! And brought his sons into great danger in the process! He sighed and glided down to the ground. And then, with an absolutely uncharacteristic outburst of fury and blinded with rage he jerked with his full weight at the chain, scratching and biting, fuming in the cage that he couldn´t break free from.

_I… must… leave_, he thought frantically, _I must get out of here!_

After a time he laid still, semiconscious. His bluster had entertained a few viewers, which laughed about this absolutely witless animal trying to break free.

One of the men grabbed the chain and hauled on it until Splinter's body laid beside the bars.

"Give it up, freak" he smiled and patted Splinter's head.

Angrily hissing, Splinter snatched at his hand.

"Whoa!" The man hastily twitched his hand back and yanked again on the chain, so that Splinter could hardly breath. "Easy, freak. Don´t bite the hand that feeds you!" To emphasize his words, he wrenched again at the chain and Splinter had no choice except to surrender if he didn´t want to suffocate.

The man one again stretched his hand to stroke his fur and this time Splinter abided the humiliation. But if looks could kill…

Finally they left and Splinter crept into the darkest corner of the cage. If he could manage to get out of this stinking prison, there would be a few names on a payback list, and he didn´t know which name was the first: this arrogant man or the perfidious witch responsible for his present situation.

Shivering, freezing, with a terrible headache and aching muscles, he crouched totally exhausted on the ground and fell asleep the very next moment.

Once again he fell and fell in the black water, but this time the rope around his neck was still choking him. In agony he kicked and struggled, but the pressure at his throat remained and grew stronger and stronger. This insane Foot had followed him into the water, had risked his own life to make sure that Splinter would die! He felt the weight at his body, and then a knife was lanced into his side…

The Foot was laughing, but his voice was so strangely bright and high- no, not one Foot, more of them, and they were laughing together with this clarion voices and once again there was a sharp pain at his side…

With an effort he opened his eyes. It was already noon. A bunch of children between eight and fourteen stood before the cage. One of them- the oldest boy, he assumed- had stuck a large stick between the bars and prodded it into his side. Splinter receded as far as the chain allowed him to, but unfortunately the stick was longer. The children answered his attempt to avoid the pain with sneering laughter.

Probably because he had slept with wet fur in the outside he felt much worse than the evening before. His vision blurred, he couldn´t see the stick or the children probably. Nevertheless he tried to grab the stick to break it.

"Look what it does now! See? See?"

The children were hooked now that they had made him react, and tried it once more, this time poking at his head. Splinter covered his face with his unharmed arm.

"_I´m dead set against corporal punishment of children if not absolutely necessary_", he thought, but this time he was sure that it _was_ absolutely necessary.

If this was the way this circus treated their animals, he wasn´t surprised that it looked shabby and run-down.

Fortunately a man saw those little brats and yelled angrily in their direction. Immediately the boy dropped the stick and the children ran away.

The man from the previous night came -"_my owner_", thought Splinter sarcastically and wished to be animal enough to bite in his backside even by the risk of poisoning himself- and carried once again two bowls- and a pair of thick gloves. He entered the cage and placed the bowl with water in front of Splinter's head. Splinter refused to take notice of him, he had closed his eyes and hoped that this corpse-to-be would finally disappear.

But obviously the man had another view of their relationship which seemed not to include being ripped apart by a totally pissed off giant rat, otherwise he wouldn´t have dared to do what he did next, or would at least had been more cautious.

"Good freak, shhh, everything okay, look, here!" The man had pulled on the gloves- and offered him a handful of this stinking animal food!

Splinter looked straight into the man´s face, to make sure that this bakayaro was serious.

He seemed not only to be serious, but interpreted Splinter's reaction wrong and crammed that junk into his semi-opened snout (Splinter wasn´t able to breathe through his nose because of his illness).

"Bwuah!"

At once Splinter spat that ugly so called foot out (it tasted even more atrocious than it smelled, if this was possible)- directly at the man's lap.

Splinter saw it coming, but his body didn´t react properly. The punch hit him at his check and dashed him against the bars.

"Rob said, you´re ill, freak, but I do not care if you´re hungry or not, I´ll not let you starve, my furry money-spinner, you´re much too valuable!"

And he grabbed the chain and forced Splinter to crawl to him if he didn´t want to be pulled by the collar around his neck. The man snatched at his neck fur and this time Splinter tried to bite, but only pinched the gloves, which he let immediately go. There was something even more manky than the food. His efforts yielded him a second blow, more fierce than the first one. For a moment, his vision darkened. When he was aware of his surrounding again, the man had pinned him to the floor and fixed his head.

"Already learned, freak? It would be better for you. At least less painful!"

Then he stuffed once against the food in Splinter's mouth, and he had no other choice than to swallow it if he didn´t want to suffocate.

After an eternity the bowl was finally empty, but the man kept his knee in Splinter's back and started to pet him.

"So, was this so bad, freak? Everything's fine, yes? I think you´re clever enough to understand who the boss is, aren't you?"

Splinter would love to show this jerk a few ninjitsu moves, and was so angry that he couldn´t care less about the consequences, but the man held with his other hand the collar so that he could barely breath and only grit his teeth.

At long last he stood up and went out of the cage- backwards, keeping an eye at the rat on the floor. It wouldn´t need an animal specialist to interpret Splinter's burning eyes and his twitching tail right.

Now Splinter had not only a big headache, but felt ill to the stomach as well. Absently he noticed that "his boss" talked with an other man about what they should call him.

"What´s about Razor Rat? I think it´s intelligent enough to learn a few stunts", was the last thing Splinter heard; then he surrendered again to unconsciousness.

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Wow! This is my longest chapter for now, and first I wanted to free him in this chapter! I think our poor Sensei has to be patient… Review! Review! Review!


	7. and Found

After I got the reviews to Splinter Lost I thought: Geez, go on! Before they´ll blame _me_…

But unfortunately, it's the end of the semester and that means exams…

Just to make things clearer: Splinter has very high fever and is not conscious of his surroundings any more.

TMNT, Splinter and April are property of Mirage (forgot to write this before, but I´m sure, everybody knows), Tally is mine.

Cynlee, thanks for your charitableness over my English and for the –very fast!- corrections.

**Chapter 7: …and Found**

After three circuses she lost her hope in ever finding him. There remained only two places at her list of circuses in New York, and she could not even be sure if he wasn´t held captive in a circus were she had already been. Sure, she asked if there were some "strange novelties", but the workers just showed her things like a rare white tiger of which she was sure that the poor animal had been colored.

It would soon be dark and she was pretty tired. She had spent the whole night before in searching via internet until she'd finally found the addresses and had just slept a few hours in the morning.

Up to the next one, and the last… and if she wouldn´t find him, she would beat the name of the circus out of Robert, she swore.

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A strange scent. He inhaled it a few minutes before he recognized it. Straw. Rotten. Of course. He had to care for those little Turtles he found just a few days ago and so he hadn´t had the time to upholster his nest. Oh, they were so fast, despite to the fact that they were Turtles, and looking at them made him nearly forget that…

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Ed Dean stood outside of the cage and watched his newest bargain. For sure, he could make a lot of money with this thing, but it had to survive and right now it looked like it would croak within the next hour.

His rat freak had curled together at the floor and whined quietly. It almost sound human, he thought uneasily. Maybe he should call for a vet. Better to pay a bill than to lose his investment.

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He screamed!

His beloved master- his father!- screamed out of pain, and Splinter's heart broke. He never ever before heard his master uttering a sound of pain, and now his outcries sounded through their apartment.

After his cage was broken, he fled, frighten to death, to hide behind a pavement, but he had to help him! These evil men would kill him! But they were so many, so tall, so strong, especially the one in the shining armor covered with razors…

And then he heard the two words he would never forget: "Finish him!"

NO!

And he attacked, he sprang directly in the face of this walking muscle- mountain, scratching and biting with everything he had… which wasn´t enough. One move of the man´s hand dashed him out of the window.

At the last moment he was able to get hold at the windowsill- and wished he hadn´t, because what he saw then was the worst moment of his life. All power left his body, he fell down to the street and was sure he would die- hoped he would die and join his beloved master.

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Strange, but this time she had a good feeling. The circus looked shabby and she hoped that it was more than a feeling, that she would finally be successful. The other circuses were eager to show her a few attractions to lure her into their show. She just hoped that the workers of this one acted the same way.

It was late afternoon and already getting dark. A sharp wind blew and she froze even in her coat. She just started to have a look-around when…

"Can I help you, Lady?" a man asked right behind her. Startled she turned around.

"Yes, sure. I´m interested in your show and would like to see a few of your animals, Mr.…?"

She offered him her brightest smile. It seemed to work.

"Dean, Ed Dean. And I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

"Tally Brown" and automatically she added "MD".

"A doctor?" Mr. Dean asked surprised. "Miss Brown, you´re sent by heaven. Maybe I have a patient for you…"

"I´m sorry, it´s my vacation", Tally said reluctantly, but she so hoped that he would lead her to Splinter, "but if it´s an emergency, I´ll help if I can".

"Oh, it is. Some kind of pneumonia, I think."

Tally gasped. "What?"

Mr. Dean looked startled. "Eh?"

" I just mean… if it is a pneumonia, you should have already brought the patient to a doctor."

"Yeah, maybe, but I just got it."

"You got IT? Are you talking about an animal?"

"Well, you´ll be surprised, Tally- may I call you Tally? Yes?- you´ll really be surprised!"

He led her to a dark cage in the middle of the place. First she saw nothing at all, but then she recognized the furry heap in the corner.

"What the…"

Ed Dean seemed to be really proud.

"Isn´t it fantastic? I´ll earn a fortune with it; that is," he looked at Tally, "if it survives!"

Tally stood nearly a minute before the cage, shocked, before she finally trusted her voice enough to speak.

"I need a closer look at …it", she croaked.

He interpreted it wrong.

"Yes, it´s pretty impressive, is it?" But he opened the cage door and let her enter. Carefully she bent over Splinter. He laid crumpled together on his side with his back toward her. She rolled him on his back and got frightened. He looked much worse than the night he was kidnapped. His hands were wrenched into fists, he breathed heavily, but he still fought.

Tally had seen it before in the hospital, were she used to work. Terminally ill people did sooner or later surrender and waited for death, but the rat before her would not give up not for a long time yet.

There remained just the question how long he would still be able to survive in this cold.

"He needs blankets and warmth. You should call a vet, I´m afraid I can´t do anything right now without the proper medications."

"I´ve a few old ones it can have. So, have you planned anything this evening, Tally?"

Was there a sign at her forehead saying "solo"?

"I´m sorry, Mr. Dean, but I´ve already a appointment this evening. See you!"

She walked as fast as she could from the place without being to obvious. Indeed, she _really_ had something planned for tonight: freeing a mutant rat whom she promised she wouldn´t let anyone hurt!

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So cold. So much pain. No air.

He whined, tried to move, with no specific goal, just wanted to go away from _this_- wherever it was.

So cold- of course.

He laid backwards in a puddle, his whole body aching from the fall from the window, where Shredder- where Shredder had killed his master!

But he'd avenged his dead master, he'd had his payback!

His son Leonardo cut off Shredders head, didn't he?

But Shredder was alive, he had kicked him out of the window of the skyscraper, and again he fell, he saw the sky above him, for a moment he was lucky- he would meet his master again, but his sons, he had to help his sons!

He swished in the water, struggled again for air and opened his eyes- he was in one of this glass cylinders, Agent Bishop filling it with some liquid, and right before him was one of his sons- who? His youngest?- strapped on a table, Bishop placing a scalpel to his plastron, the liquid increasing, screams (his youngest?)-oh, he must help him, but he had no air and fell again, and this time he hit the street, he smelled and tasted his own blood, he was strapped onto the table, Bishop raised the scalpel--

no, Shredder was the winner and cut Leonardo's head off- he had forsaken him! His son, his sons, Leo was so ill and there was a fire in the shop, Shredder pinned him to the floor and hit his face, then he raised his hand with his blades and aimed at his throat, Splinter waited for the pain- he knew he would die- and he did.

The hits on his face continued and he finally managed to see the cause.

But he was dead- the fall, the water, the knife, the scalpel- he died at least a dozen times- so this must be…

"Amatsu-otome?" he whispered, then everything went black.

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Tally thanked all gods which names she had ever heard that it was no full moon. She was sure that her nerves wouldn't stand this. She had driven back home, slept for a few hours, and came again.

Now it was three o´clock am and damned cold, but she had to make sure that no one was awake. Finally she dared to tiptoe to the cage in which Splinter was imprisoned. In the dim moonlight she could see that he hadn´t moved since her first appearance.

Sh…! She should have thought about this! The cage door had a padlock, of course. What to do now? Then she had an idea and crawled under the cage.

Yes! There was a shutter through which the hay could be changed, and it had only a bar!

Luckily Splinter didn´t lay above it, so she was able to enter the cage.

Splinters body felt much too hot, but his pulse was more or less steady so she decided that she could risk waking him. He was too heavy for her to carry the whole way to her car. Carefully she hit his cheeks.

After a half eternity he opened one eye and whispered something which sounds like "amatsuotome". A look in his eyes told her that she could not hope that he would be able to fully wake. Looks like she had to carry him, and he was much heavier than he looked...

Afterwards she was not sure how she'd managed this. She just noticed somewhere on the ride to Manhattan that her whole body was trembling. The street seemed not to end.

Finally in the city, she stopped at the first all- night drugstore and bought a pain killer, a bottle of water and a strong smelling menthol crème.

Okay, this was pretty mean, especially to a rat with its sensitive nose, but she had no idea what she should do with him. Bring him to her practice or to her apartment?

No way! Rob would find them immediately.

Slowly it dawned her what she had really done. This guys from the circus… would be _really_ angry…

She gulped, hard. It was best to get rid of the rat and to take a real vacation, maybe to Europe or even to Asia for four weeks. After that everyone would have calmed down- she hoped.

She once again tried to wake Splinter. He muttered some words she didn´t understand. But as she put the box with the crème under his nose, he sneezed a few times and moved his head away, but Tally followed.

At last he opened his eyes.

"Splinter, where does this April live?"

First she thought he hadn´t heard her, but finally he muttered: "Corner Eastman and Laird, warehouse."

Tally managed barely to put a few aspirin in his throat and make him swallow them before he collapsed again.

Okay, April lives in a warehouse. Maybe a homeless?

She drove to the address- a little bit too fast, actually much too fast, but she could feel the fear on the back of her neck.

If she would have it to do again, she would have left him in the cage, wouldn´t she?

She was not sure. Despite to the fact that it was cold outside her pullover was soaked with sweat. What was she thinking! They would come after her! She braked.

She should drive immediately to the police station, explain everything, they would protect her…

Behind her she heard a soft whimper. She turned around. Splinter laid curled up like an infant on the back seat.

Involuntarily she smiled. She had managed it so far; she could just as well end it- and have a normal life again without mutant rats. And if these circus guys tried to threaten her, she would go to the police. She was a distinguished doctor. The police would believe her and not some rag tags.

She reached the warehouse. It was obviously abandoned- too obviously, she thought after a second view. The lock was new, but the windows were low enough to allow her to climb through.

There was rubbish all around, but under the rubbish- a motorbike, and a very strange looking van. But there were other things to care about right now.

Which names had Splinter mentioned? She just remembered one.

"Raphael?"

First nothing happened, but then the strange pattern on the floor vanished and some kind of elevator appeared. She gasped scared.

The door opened, a bright light was blinding her in the dark warehouse, but she could see the two black shadows within the elevator.

Two _huge_ black shadows.

Suddenly she was sure that she had made a very big mistake- but now it was to late.

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**A/N:**Yeah! Old writers trick- stop at the most thrilling moment. Nasty nasty…


	8. An Angel

Did anyone translate "amatsu-otome" on his own?

Well, here´s the answer.

TMNT and all fellow characters belong to Mirage, but Tally is mine.

Thanks to Cynlee for corrections and stimulation.

To everyone who read this and is angry that I do never give a review, at least not during the last time: I try to, but my computer always says "Popup blocked" and nothing helps. Sorry, really. But it would be nice if you review nevertheless.

Chapter 8: An Angel

_The door opened, a bright light was blinding her in the dark warehouse, but she could see the two black shadows within the elevator. _

_Two huge black shadows. _

_Suddenly she was sure that she had made a very big mistake- but now it was to late…_

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

For a moment, Raphael and Leo stood still and looked at the woman. She had raised her hand to cover her eyes, the light was blinding her. But by the look on her face Leo knew that she saw them.

Finally Raphael lost his patience. He pounced forward and grabbed her shoulders.

"Who are you? Who told you about this address? Why do you know my name? Answer!"

Totally out of his mind because of the fear about his father's's whereabouts, he shook her roughly- so hard, that Leo even heard her teeth chatter. The poor woman did not even have a chance to answer.

Leo stepped forward and freed her from the grip of his brother, before he could really hurt her. If not Casey or April, there was just one person left who could have told her about this place...

The woman took a few steps back, trembling. Leo sighed. Yes, Raphael sure did have a with strangers.

So he tried.

"Hello. My name is Leonardo. I apologize for my brother. He´s a hothead and in a pretty bad mood in the moment. Just don´t get in his way. But… how _did_ you find us?"

He clenched his hands into fists, so hoping, and at the same moment so sure that this was a dead end too. A mistake. A coincidence.

_Please…, oh please._

He did not believe in a God, but right now he would swear to absolutely everything if it would improve his chances of seeing his master again.

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OHMYGOD!

Tally was sure this insane creature would strangle her. The other one seemed to be more stable. The look in his eyes after he asked her how she had found them was so desperate. Tally felt pity. She just didn´t know where to start. After all, this was a pretty weird situation. Splinter, okay, but he was hurt, small, and no danger. _These _two- even in the dimly light she could see how muscular they were.

"My name is Tally Brown, M.D. I think I found someone who belongs to you."

Then everything went very fast.

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They did not even asked further questions, they ran immediately out of the warehouse and to the parked car. The woman- Tally Brown- followed them, Leonardo already activating his shellcell.

"Don, it´s Splinter. No, shut up, just listen. He´s unconscious and hurt. You better bring a barrow, I don´t want to move him that much."

Before Don could say a further word Leo hung up and ignored the beeps.

Raphael carefully examined Splinter.

"He has high fever, and a broken arm. Maybe his ribs are broken as well."

He spun around angrily.

"Are you responsible for-"

"I wouldn´t have brought him to this place, would I?" The woman answered.

Leo silently cheered her. Raph could be really frightening when he was angry. This lady had guts.

"I found him on the beach after a storm and cared for him as best as I could. He had had a high fever, so it was a little bit tricky to get your address. Actually, I was not able to find you in the telephone book," she added a bit sarcastically.

Tally thought it would be better not to mention the circus, afraid of the reaction of the one with the red mask.

"And you two are…"

"Sorry", said Leo. "I´m Leonardo, that´s Raphael. And those two over there are Donatello and Michaelangelo. But let´s talk later. Splinter is more important right now."

Worried he looked into his father's's face. Raphael had taken Splinter's hand and was gently stroking the face of his master. Leonardo knew that Raph would _kill_ him if he would ever dare to mention this. His brother was not as tough as he pretended to be.

Donatello carefully placed Splinter in the barrow, then he and Leo carried him back into the Lair. Tally, uninvited, followed.

When the doors of the elevator opened, she couldn't help but stare. This was unbelievable! Did they actually made this place? She couldn´t believe that.

She followed them to some kind of sick bay. They even had medical equipment! Maybe one of them was even medically skilled. Good! She was so tired that she didn'´t want to care for anyone now.

The Turtles bent over Splinter, and indeed, the one named Donatello began to change his bandages. Tally sat down on a chair. Just five minutes…

She awoke in stages. First she thought that she was dreaming. Then that she had been dreaming and was awake now. Then she opened her eyes. She lay on a futon bed, covered with a blanket. The room was clean, well organized and had a strong asiatic touch.

Splinter´s room, she was sure.

It gave her the same feeling of calmness and serenity she had when Splinter told her about himself and his family. Besides, his "sons" were teenagers and she was sure that they would never have rooms this clean.

She yawned and stood up, feeling dirty. She was still fully dressed and her clothes were stiff with dried sweat. Carefully she opened the paper- stringed door. She walked down the stairs…

"Yaaaah! Got you, Leo! Oh, sorry, Tally!"

Tally fell with a plump on her backside, hand on her pumping heart, seeing a smiling Turtle- Michaelangelo?- running away, followed by a wet Leonardo.

Wet? Seemed to be an interesting morning.

"Mikey! Oh, sh-"

He saw her.

"Sorry."

He opened his hand and showed her the remains of a water balloon.

"That´s so typical Mikey. He is so happy that you brought Master Splinter home, he has to release energy, and he does it this way. Don´t wonder if he tries to fool you as well, but maybe he will a bit restrained with you. I hope so, for your sake, and for _his_. "

He showed her the bathroom and the kitchen.

"April was here earlier and left some clothes for you, so that you can shower if you want."

"Thank you. Was it Splinter's room in which I slept? How is he?"

"Don says he´ll be fine. We really owe you."

Tally waved it aside.

"Something like this should be natural."

Leonardo looked very serious.

"But it isn´t. The most people would have called the police."

"Again, no need to thank me. May I see him? Besides, I liked his room. It was very calming."

"When Mikey heard that Splinter was back he spilled Cola all over the sofa and we were not able to dry it that fast. Normally we enter his room only at his invitation, but we thought it would be okay. After all, you saved him. Do you want to see him now or do you wish to shower first? He is still sleeping and Don cares for him. He didn´t move away from Sensei's bedside the whole night. Actually ", he smiled sleepily, "none of us did."

"Well, then I would prefer to shower first. And maybe to have some breakfast?"

"Lunch. It´s already noon!"

Wow! She had already forgotten what a good feeling it was to be clean and just to relax. She finally just realized under how much pressure she had been since Splinter came into her life.

Right now, she sat at a kitchen table in a room somewhere in the sewer system of New York - as if she would ever tell that to anyone-, before her set a plate with a very creatively decorated pizza ( a special "Thanks for bringing Splinter home" gift by Michaelangelo, but she managed to eat only the half of it, it was much too spicy) and actually observing four teenage turtles, who were hilariously having lunch.

Well, at least Michaelangelo was hilarious, so much, that Raphael emptied a glass of cold water on his head, but by the reactions of the other two Turtles-- actually, because of **no** reaction, she could say that this was more or less normal life down here.

Michaelangelo had already allowed her to read all of his comic books - even "the very rare Silver Sentry No. 2, it was reeeeeally hard work to get it, but Raph was angry because I read it out loud and so he wanted to take it, but I wouldn´t release it and so it had a rip in the front cover but I put adhesive tape on it, and hey, you nearly don´t see it, except you hold it against the light and it´s a little bit creased too because I read it so often but´s it´s really totally great because Silver Sentry gets captured by Dr. Doom and ..."

She felt a little bit of sympathy for his rodent father, considering the fact that Splinter has had to live with this for fifteen years now. Even after fifteen minutes without a full stop or a comma she felt dimly lit in her head. But he was great. _Call me Mikey, Michaelangelo is much to long. Mostly just Splinter calls me Michaelangelo, or "My Son", of course, but he usually calls all of us "My Son", so it´s not really a difference…._ All of them were great.

She nearly wished to be able to stay a bit longer, to spend more time with them, but she had her own life to which she should go back. Her surgery would still be closed for the next five days, but she should reorganize her life, and it would be better with no mutant beings.

After all she heard about their human friends, they had shared hard times with the Turtles. The shop of the poor Ms. ONeil had even be burned down, and this Shredder guy seemed to be that kind of nightmare which always appeared when you think in your dreams that it couldn´t become any worse.

She would stay just one night more, to make sure that Splinter was fine, then she would go. Better for all of them.

Suddenly she remembered something.

"Do any of you know what "atatsu-okome" or something like that--means?"

Four faces rocket upwards and stared at her, astonished. Leonardo finally spoke.

"Maybe "amatsu-otome"?"

Tally gave a shrug.

"Possibly. I do not speak this language."

A slightly amused smile appeared at Mikey's lips.

"Did Master Splinter call you this?"

Tally nodded. The other Turtles started to smile, too.

"Yes, in fever. So, what does it mean?"

Mikey's smile went wider and wider.

"Angel."

"Eh?"

" 'Amatsu-otome' is Japanese for 'angel'!"

And all four Turtles snorted out with laughters, while Tally felt her cheeks glow rosy.

"_Be that as it may_, did his fever sink?"

But Mikey was not willing to drop the subject. He suddenly got serious.

"No, really. He was right. You was his guardian angel. He might have died at that beach, but you saved him."

Then he smiled again.

"Yes, you were his guardian angel- minus the wings, of course. But we have a few extra eiderdowns, so I´m sure we can _wing it_ and make you a pair, of course, snowy white and…"

"Oh yes, poor Splinter!" she thought again and ignored Mikey's babbling and the laughter of his brothers , but in secret she remembered the expression in Splinter's eyes and the tiny smile at his lips when he called her "amatsu-otome"- Angel.

Half an hour later she sat next to Splinter's bed, eying his sleeping body. The Turtles had told her that he was able to beat all four of them in the dojo, but after she had a look at their training, she was not sure what she should think about their "Master". She had bandaged his unconscious body and felt his muscles, but he looked so small and calm- despite to the agitating behavior of his students.

Every five minutes one of them peered into the room. Obviously they didn´t trust her that much to let her totally alone with their beloved master.

She changed her sitting position. Seconds later Splinter moved in his sleep. She smoothed the blanket, brushing his whiskers while doing so.

"Tschuu!"

He sneezed- and awoke. For a moment they just stared in each other- then Splinter, startled, jerked so abruptly backwards that he nearly felt out of his bed. Tally, too, was startled, but not as much as Splinter, who seemed just now to notice where he was.

Confused, he looked around. Then he tried to stand up, but Tally pushed him back in lying position.

"You shouldn't stand up right now. How are you?"

Splinter ignored her and looked around again. Finally he answered. His voice sounded croaky and weak, but she could understand him.

"Am I… home?"

He stared at her face with widened, still fever- shining eyes. Tally was so touched that she instinctively hugged him. For a moment his body hardened, then he relaxed.

"Yes, you´re safe now. No one will be able to hurt you again. Well, there are a few people which are really eager to see you!"

She saw him smiling and went to the door.

"Guys? He´s awake!"

She hardly managed to dodge them.

For the next few moments, she was not able to come near his bed. All of the Turtles babbled higgledy-piggledy, stroking his fur, hugging him and showing him in every possible way how happy they were that they had him back.

Finally Don chucked them out- and only Splinter himself could forestall a brawl- and only he and Tally stayed. Splinter was half asleep again, but he smiled in their direction.

Don bent over him and carefully helpt him to him a glass of water and medicine. Splinter had problems in gulping and coughed, but this time Tally could see no blood. The fact of being home seemed to help him more than any medicine. After he had fallen asleep, she asked Don about it.

"Well, he´s a rat and no human. He is a lot tougher and not as, ehm, effete as many humans are."

"_Thank you_, Donatello!"

"I said many humans, not all humans. None of us got much medicine in our lives as a human normally takes, and so our immune systems learned how to deal with infections. Splinter will be okay. I´m worried about his breathing, but his arm and his ribs will heal and it´s not the first time that one of us has had a bronchitis."

He really seemed to be able to care for him, so Tally had no remorse about leaving the next day. Suddenly the door opened. Donatello turned around angrily.

"I told you he needs…Oh! Sorry, April!"

A young, red haired woman entered the room, followed by a black-haired, very muscular man.

"Do we disturb? I closed my shop early this day to come and look after Splinter, but if…"

"No, it´s okay. I just don´t want the others to yak to whole time. He needs to rest."

April had a bunch of flowers, already in a vase and placed them on a small table. The man- probably Casey- felt apparently uneasily. April stepped over to Tally.

"Hello. My name is April O´Neil. You really did a great job!"

Tally smiled. Slowly this became awkward.

"It´s okay. Truly. I mean, it´s my job, isn´t it?"

The door opened again. All turned around… and Tally got the shock of her life. This could not be… She screamed out of terror and fainted immediately.

When she awoke, she lay in a bed next to Splinter's and all views- even his- were aimed at her. She was embarrassed and her cheeks turned rosy. Maybe this …thing…was a friend of theirs?

Donatello sighed.

"Maybe we should have warned you. Leatherhead is a friend, he wouldn´t harm you. He just wanted to check on how Splinter is."

"He apologizes for frightening you and assures that this was not his intention", an unfamiliar voice sad. Tally looked around. There was no one there, too- except…

"A talking robot?"

The droid stretched out his hand.

"Please, call me Honeycutt, Ms. Brown."

It was late evening when she finally dared to leave the infirmary and to go to the living area. But she had no luck. The big walking crocodile was still there.

"Ms. Brown, I´m really sorry. I didn´t…"

"It´s okay."

Tally waved her hand. She had no desire to be long in the presense of this being while hearing his apology. Leatherhead seemed to notice this, smiled calmly (and showed too many teeth in doing so) and went in to join Donatello.

Leonardo and Michelangelo sat in front of the TV, watching the News. Tally sat down next to them and suddenly stared in shock in the TV. The newscaster referred about a fire in a surgery- her surgery! The report ended with the words:

"The proprietress was not available. The police department suspects arson as an act of revenge, based on the fact that nailed to the door was an animal which sources have identified to us as a rat."

Two heads turned around. Mikey lost the grip on his glass and it shattered on the floor. Leo cleared his throat.

"Ehm, Tally? Don´t you think there is some you should tell us?"


	9. Meet Raphael

Sorry for so long not updating! The old story: University…

Thanks for the reviews to everyone! And special thanks to Cynlee for beta reading and corrections, and to Reijiro: I really forgot to think over that the Turtles wouldn´t allow Tally to go just as she came. The Rat King…

Haven´t thought about him appearing in this story yet, but maybe I´ll find a place for him.

To Engelina: The warehouse address was not my idea, it is from the cartoon; Casey told it to Angel in Season One/ Fallen Angel.

P.S.: Did anyone ever taste sage tea? Absolutely nasty, but unfortunately effective. I had to drink it when I was ill, but I could never convince my mother to do so, too. I would have soooooo liked to see her face…. :)

**Meet Raphael**

Still shocked, Tally stared at the TV.

"No, they wouldn´t... they just _can´t… _NOOOOO!"

Donatello heard her scream even at Splinter´s bed and Raphael came out of his room.

"Can´t a Turtle just even have a nap without everything breaking down?" he snorted angrily. Then he saw the sobbing woman at the sofa, clumsily comforted by Leo and Mikey.

"What´s wrong now? Did a spider scare her?"

"Raphael!"

Leo tapped Tally's back.

"Someone burned down her surgery- and left a dead rat as a signature!"

"That's interesting news. I knew the whole time that her story stunk like a rotten egg. So, time to the truth now, Lady, okay?"

Tally did not even hear him. The only one who could have told them about her practice or her was Robert, but why? For sure they forced him, maybe even hurt him, she should have never become entangled with these freaks, they were going to ruin her whole live! Tears trailed down her face while she crouched on the sofa, half aware of the Turtles around her, when she was suddenly roughly hoisted up.

"What the shell went on these last few days! And what did you do with our Sensei? Heck, he had straw in his fur!"

"Raphael, let her go", Leonardo advised him, but he, too, was unsure how to deal with this changed situation. Instinctively he trusted her, and Splinter had always advised him to "trust his guts", but now it was clear she was hiding something.

It was Mikey who saved the day.

"Hey, it´s okay. You can tell us. These bozos", he waved to the TV, "were after Splinter, weren´t they?"

He looked in her face, mildly smiling, and she hugged him as fast as she could and cried her misery out on his shoulder. Astonished, he hugged her back and tried to calm her down, while Don held back Raphael. Leonardo tried to get an answer, but Tally wouldn´t speak, and so they waited. It took nearly half an hour until she finally stopped crying. Then she told them everything.

And witnessed her first fight, when Leo had to overcome Raphael, who wanted to immediately take payback.

"Forget it, Raphael. No one is going anywhere until Splinter recovers, understood?"

"They…they…they… YOU WANT THEM TO GET AWAY WITH THIS?"

Totally pissed off, Raphael jumped at Leonardo again, but Leo whirled out of his direction of attack and struck a blow on his brother's shell, so that Raphael fell to the ground. Immediately Leo placed himself on Raph's backside. Raphael had no chance to lift the whole weight of his brother.

"Leo, I warn you…GET OFF OF MY SHELL!"

He cursed badly and squirmed on the ground, but Leo shrugged the insults off. The scene looked so unreal - two giant Turtles having a wrestling fight- that Tally couldn´t help but smile under her tears. She so dearly wished to have someone else to talk about this with, but she knew: If she would ever tell someone, she would find herself in a surgery again very soon- not as doctor, but rather as a patient.

Finally Leo stood up. Raph felt as if he would burst with anger at any moment. He punched with all his force at Leo´s face and imagined it was the mug of one of this bastards, but his brother was prepared and caught the punch in midair.

"Better go to your room, Raph, and try to relax."

"DON´T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! JUST THIS ONE TIME, LEO: SHUT UP!"

Scratching together every little piece of his self control, Raph managed to turn around, to go to his room, to close the door without slamming it; but then he dealt with his punching bag until his fists hurt and his breath burned in his throat. Finally he laid down in the hammock, doing something he rarely did: developing a plan.

Of course, Leonardo would expect him to sneak out and try to find and deal with this scum on his own. But maybe, after Leo caught him one time, he would think Raph had calmed down.

But how to find this special circus…

Yes! Raph rocket upwards so abruptly he nearly felt out of his hammock. He had just the idea!

Mikey was in the kitchen, preparing the supper, when Don entered with a bowl half-filled with chicken broth.

"How´s Sensei?"

Don sighed.

"He said, if he has to drink just one more bowl of broth, he would develope plumes instead of fur. Do we still have rice pudding?"

Mikey shrugged.

"Think so. But that´s typical. He refuses to eat this stuff, but if _one of us_ is ill.. One would think this is a perfect opportunity for a little payback, isn´t it?"

Don looked at the bowl in his hands, then he put it in the microwave. He turned around to the grinning Mikey.

"After all, he´s ill. He shouldn´t eat rice so soon with his sore throat."

As the microwave beeped, Don took the bowl and left the room.

Mikey shouted after him: "Sage is very good for a hurt throat, too!"

"Thanks for the idea!"

Don wanted to bring the bowl to his Sensei, but then he saw Tally and Leo standing in front of the elevator, arguing. He stepped further to listen.

"Who do you think are you? Let me go!"

"Tally, I´m sorry. It would be best if you´d stay just for a few days or weeks. You´re not safe out there. These guys are looking for you. They might catch you and force you to tell them where Splinter is."

"You mean you don't trust me? Heck! After all I risked for the fur ball? If you really think you can force me to stay against my will, you´re even more stupid than you look! You´ll let me go! Now!!!"

Leo sighed and leaned against the door of the elevator. He didn´t look into her eyes, and his voice sounded unsteady.

" We are really thankful for the rescuing of our master, but we just can´t take the risk that the location of the Lair becomes known. Please. Do not force us to watch every step of yours."

He pressed a few buttons on the control panel and turned around. Tally pressed the buttons angrily, but when nothing happened, she followed Leo and saw Donnie.

"You! You are the technician around here, aren´t you? Make this thing work!"

Donatello shook his head.

"I´m sorry, Tally. I do not like to say it, but for the moment I think Leo is right."

Then he went to Splinter, before his remorse could overwhelm him.

Splinter was sleeping peacefully, still breathing heavily and fevering, but he was in a stable condition. Don was relieved that Splinter seemed to ride it out, despite his age. But this made him feel even more guilty. Tally had risked a lot, and now she was in trouble because she had helped them. They owed her one. He would talk with Leo about this. Tomorrow. When everyone had calmed down. He took a book and prepared himself for another night watch at his master's bed.

These damned freaks! How could they dare to imprison her!

Angrily Tally walked around in circles, she was too agitated to sit still. But it was difficult to stay angry in this room, so Tally dropped herself on Splinter's futon bed. This one, the bathroom and the kitchen were the only rooms down here she knew, and right now she didn´t want to see a green face.

Randomly she pulled out a book from a nearby rack. Shakespeare's complete works. Wow! It looked old and shabby, a few pages were missing, but someone had accurately repaired it with sticky tape. There was a bookmark in the middle of the Midsummer Night Dream, her own favorite Shakespeare work. She turned back to the beginning of the comedy and started to read, trying to distract her thoughts. She would talk with Splinter tomorrow. He seemed to care about honor and such things and he owed her one. For sure he could convince Leonardo to let her go- provided that his fever was down enough so that he understood what she was talking about.

A few hours later she went to the bathroom, ignoring the Turtles completely.

"Ehm, Tally? Please do not take it personally, but Leo…"

Tally closed the door before Donatello could finish his sentence.

Don sighed heavily, that he sat down on the sofa next to Mikey, who crushed a bag of popcorn.

"What´s the matter, Don?" he asked, spitting popcorn over his brother.

"It´s about Tally. We have no right to keep her here. She helped us and now…"

Mikey shrugged.

"April´ll talk with her tomorrow. She just has to stay until we have taken care of these guys who caught Master Splinter."

They watched Tally as she went back to Splinter's room.

"Now she could sleep on the sofa. It´s dry again", Michelangelo said.

"Master Splinter isn't using his bed right now, and he doesn't care. I asked him."

Mikey shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Yes, I know, but it just doesn't seem right."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Something touched her. There was a big dark silhouette over a her bed. A burglar!

She opened her mouth for a scream, but not a sound came out of her throat. The burglar pressed his hand across her mouth. Angrily she struggled, tried to break free, but his other hand kept her on the ground. She tried to bite him when she suddenly noticed: The hand had three fingers!

She remembered and calmed down, and anger replaced her fear. The hand disappeared.

"Who are you? What to you want?"

As a precaution she rolled the blanket more closely around her body.

The shadow moved back.

"Quiet! It´s me, Raphael. I wanna help you!"

Tally snorted disdainfully.

"Help me? By giving me a heart attack?"

"Listen. You wanna go home, and I want the cretins who hurt Splinter. Deal?"

"And what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Absolutely nothing. That´s the easy part of my plan."

"What?"

"I´ll explain later. Are you coming with me?"

"Okay. But take care of your backside if this doesn´t work."

Raphael laughed softly. Both sat in the darkness.

"Out!"

"Eh? But we…"

"I have to dress!"

A few minutes later Tally left the room. Suddenly she was raised and Raphael pressed again his hand to her lips.

"Shhh. I just want to make sure you make no noise."

He carried her to the door, typed a code in the panel and the way into the sewer system of New York was opened.

They walked through the tunnels, and Tally asked again.

"So, what´s your plan?"

Raph grinned.

"We´ll use the oldest trick of the world. If you want to hunt something, you need a decoy."

"And what do you want to use as a decoy?"

His grin become wider.

"You!"

"Oh!"

----------------------------------------------------

Raphael led her trough the tunnel system beneath the city. After a few turnoffs Tally totally lost her bearings.

"How to you know where to go in this maze?"

"Years of experience, Lady."

In the dim light she only saw a back huge shadow walking before her. She felt insecure. Could she really trust him? They were alone down here. He had attacked her before. No one would hear her scream…

She shuttered and walked faster. There was no rational reason for him to bring her that far away to hurt her. He could had just throw her into anyone of these whirling drainage areas they frequently passed by.

On the other hand, her whole life had become pretty irrational the last days.

Lost in her thoughts, she trotted after the spattering sound before her and came up against a hard shell when her leader stopped.

"It´s right over our heads."

Tally shivered. It was cold, damp and her surrounding did look exactly like every other tunnel they'd been through.

"Are you sure?"

The shadow sighed.

"Lady, I´ve been growin´ up down here. The only one who knows the sewer system better than me and my brothers is Master Splinter. So, just climb up the ladder, go to your practice and wait. I´ll watch you and when you´re attacked, I´m there."

"Do you really think that someone waited for me? For so long?"

Raphael didn´t respond, but his silence was answer enough. Reluctantly Tally climbed up. Raphael had already removed the manhole cover. Carefully she peeked over the rim. No one to see. Good. She wouldn´t have known how to explain why she scrambled out of the NY sewer system.

She went down the alley - and stood directly before her former practice. A sob escaped from her throat. What was once her white clean practice, ended as a wet soot- blackened burned down heap of ruins. Yellow barrier tape with the title "Do not cross" blocked the door. She kneeled down and crawl under it in her practice.

There was a label: "Do not enter! Dangerous structure! DANGER OF LIFE!" In her practice? Trance-like, she went slowly through the rooms. She didn´t recognize it any longer. She had paid off her debts just one year ago. Was this all she had to show for it? A ruin?

Something wet went down her cheek. She hadn´t been aware that she was crying. Absently she wiped her hand over her eyes- and froze!

Something sharp was pressed between her shoulders.

"Not a sound, Lady. We two will take a nice little ride and then you´ll tell me where our mutual furry friend is. We miss him dearly, you know."

The knifetip was pressed again in her back. Tally went slowly to the door when…

SMASH!

A sickening sound resounded, and when Tally dared to turn around, Raph stood behind her. He held a piece of wood in his hands. Her attacker lay motionless on the ground. Raphael bend down and tied the man with a rope.

"Now, let´s see what you want to tell us."

He hit the man´s face lightly. Slowly the man regained consciousness.

"What…"

His eyes became wider and wider.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"

Raphael kicked him so hard in the stomach that he flew against the opposite wall, where he sank to ground groaning.

Raphael walked slowly to the semiconscious man, when Tally grabbed his arm.

"Raph, no. Please. There´s no need to…"

"No need to? There´s definitely need to! They wanted to keep my master in a cage! He nearly died! And what´s with you? They destroyed your life! Don´t you want payback?"

"But that won't help!"

"It helps a lot, Lady, believe me!"

Again he kicked the man.

"You! Bastard! Where are your cronies?"

The man didn´t seem able to speak, but when Raph grasped his hair and lifted him, he couldn´t talk fast enough. Raphael let him fall down and wiped his hand at his weapon belt, as if he had touched something really dirty. Then he hauled off again.

"No! Raphael, not! He told you what you want to know!"

Raphael turned around. Tally froze when she saw the look on his face. She closed her eyes. A sharp snap resounded. When Tally opened her eyes again, the head of the man laid nearly on his shoulder. He wasn´t breathing any more.

She did not move when Raphael walked aside.

"Seems as if I have misjudged you, Lady. I thought you would understand."

Then he was gone- and she was alone with a corpse in her burned down practice. She felt to her knees, tears streaming down her face again. What should she do?


	10. Hard Decision

Hello! Mea culpa, I´m very sorry. Got a pretty big writers blockade and my English became a bit rusty, I fear. Hope you like it nevertheless.

Thanks to Cynlee for beta reading and corrections!

10. Hard Decision

After some time, she got calm enough to think clearly. Sitting here and crying wouldn´t help her. They knew which was her practice, so they would for sure know about her apartment, too. Maybe she cold go to one of her friends, but she didn´t want to cause them trouble. At the latest next morning the police would search for her, if they weren´t already. So there was only one address left.

"Damned", she muttered.

Luckily she had pocketed her purse. Carefully she left the practice and walked a few streets further, until she dared to call a cab.

The driver stopped a corner afar from the address Splinter had given her.

"Are you sure you want to get off here?" he asked doubtfully. "It´s not exactly a nice neighborhood."

"It´s all right. I´m going to meet someone."

The driver looked suspiciously, but didn´t asked further. After Tally paid him, he pulled out at once.

Without to hesitate, Tally walked to this special warehouse and again, she squeezed herself through a window. Then she hammered at the colorful baseplate which was the ceiling of their lift.

"Hey! I know that you´re there! Open!"

She didn´t had to wait long. Suddenly the baseplate moved, the lift appeared and Donatello stood in front of her.

"Tally? What are you doing here? How did you manage to leave the Lair?"

Tally pushed him aside and entered the lift.

"First get Mikey and Leonardo. I do not like to tell everything twice!"

When he had heard Tally´s story, Leonardo appeared to be calm, but Don knew that he was mad inside. This was _sooooo_ typical Raph.

Leonardo just said two words: "Gotta go!"

He went to the elevator, followed by his two brothers- and by Tally. Leo grabbed her arm. "You stay here! This is much too dangerous!"

Angrily, Tally shook him off.

"This is about _me_, too!"

"He´s right, Tally", Don tried to calm her, "besides, someone has to look for-"

In this moment, the silhouette of his Master was visible before the ward.

"Splinter". Don sighed, then he went to his father.

Splinter stood trembling in the doorway and backed himself with one hand on the wall.

"What…had happened?" he croaked. "Where´s Raphael?"

Tally resigned. She walked over to Splinter and pushed him- more or less against his will- to bed again. Behind her she heard the sound of the closing elevator door. Just come back, she thought, an I´ll tell you something!

"He´s okay. Probably just out for a walk. The other ones will bring him home. Just rest. You shouldn´t stand up right now."

"He shouldn´t go topside", Splinter mumbled. Tally was nearly not able to understand him. "It´s much to dangerous. He will be seen. He might be in danger…"

He coughed hardly.

"Please, Splinter, be silent. You mustn´t speak!"

He opened his mouth again and Tally put without further ado a thermometer between his teeth. At least this would keep him from speaking. He lifted his hand to gesticulate, but Tally grabbed and held it. "Shhhh", she whispered. "Calm down". And finally he seemed to becalm. So she sat next to his bed, watching him dozing, and waited for the return of the Turtles.

Raphael sat at the edge of the rim of a shabby storehouse. There was not even the need to hide, for the night was pitch-black and there were no lights around him- except the one in the next warehouse´s window beneath him, where he observed a few man playing cards.

He whirled one of his sais in his right hand and listened absently to the faint sound of the harbor water.

Fate.

In some way, it started in the harbor- with the Foot; and it would end here. He grabbed his sai faster and prepared to leap forward. He was sooooo going to enjoy this.

---------------------------------------

Ed Deans hand was disastrous, so he decided to leave this round and go to the rest room instead. Just as he stood up, a smashing sound resounded and something heavy hit him hardly in the back. He fell forward, his head hit the chair rim. Groaning he hit the ground. The impact must had been really hard, because he could have sworn that there was a giant Turtle standing in the middle in the room, grinning evilly and whirling around two strange kind of knives.

Raphael had knocked out two of the men immediately. The first one was still asleep, the second one laid on the ground and stared horrorstricken in his direction, but number three and four took out guns!

Damned! cursed Raphael inside, when he sprang behind the overthrown table. He should have thought of it! Two bullets hit his shelter, but didn´t penetrate the table. And this was not the way it should go! He should be the one forcing this bastards to search for shelter.

But in this very moment, he had no chance. The room was too bright and to small. He counted the shoots, and in a break, he leaped out of the window, hoping the man would follow him- and they did!

By the time they climbed clumsily out of the window, Raphael had already reentered the roof and watched them. It would be so easy to kill them with his sais from above- to easy. He wanted them to really _regret_. He would had never admitted it, but when he had seen his sensei, his _father_ in such a shape, he just wanted to break every bone of the one responsible- very very slowly. Unfortunately the Foot soldier was already dead, but this scum was still alive- up to now.

Now all four again stood before the window, arguing. Raphael grinned and sprang noiselessy from the roof in the alley between the warehouses. He took a small stone and threw it at the back of the men closest to him. The men cried out and stumbled, but didn´t fell, right as Raphael planned. Immediately the four turned around and came up to the alley. Raphael ducked a little bit deeper in the shadows, sneering. "Yes, scum, come here to play!"

Meanwhile his brothers drove the Turtles Van at high speed to the harbor. Leo peered at one of Donatello's monitoring displays, where a green spot was blinking.

"Don, you´re sure he´s still there? After all, he deactivated his Shell cell!"

"That doesn´t matter", shrugged Don, "as long as he still keeps it with him."

They left the Van at the beginning of the port facility and went over the rooftops. They didn´t even need Don´s tracking device any more- a loud scream hat shown them the proper direction. When they entered the fighting place, they saw how Raphael pulled one of the guys into a garbage can- head first.

As he lifted one more from the ground, Leo sprang in the alley and caught his brothers fist before Raphael could hit the men´s face again.

"What are you guys doing here?" Raphael smashed the men to the ground again and stared angrily at his brothers. Before Leo could start, Don tried to arbitrate.

"Raph, that´s not the right way. Besides", he added, "Master Splinter won´t heal any faster if he has to worry about you."

"That… is… not… _fair_!" Raphael was close to attack his brother, too. "They deserved it! Heck, you have seen it what a state Sensei was! You want them to get away with it?"

Leo paused for a moment. He was angry, too. But…

He sighed.

The men already left the alley, except the one who was pinned into the garbage can.

"Let´s call the police and then go home."

"And what do you think the police will do?" Raphael was not willingly to let them run free.

Leo shrugged. "You mean, when they say that they were attacked by a giant turtle while they were after a giant rat?"

Donatello already did the phone call.

"Besides, _very_ good job in Tally´s office. What were you thinking?"

Raphael didn´t answer. He just turned around and walked to his bike.

"We put the corpse into the sewers. At least nobody will find it", Don shouted after him.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was nearly in the morning when the Turtles came home. Donatello entered the infirmary and sat down next to Tally.

"How is he?"

Tally shrugged. "As the case may be… fine, at least for the moment. Breathing and heart beat are steady. But he really shouldn´t overexcite!"

Donatello sighed. "Well, that´s Raphael. I hope he calmed down right now. Besides, we cared for your surgery."

Tally nodded. "But they will still be after me, won´t they?"

Don shrugged. "Depends on how much Raphael terrified them. Better wait for two weeks or so."

"And what to tell the police then?"

Donatello lowered his head. "I´m sorry".

Tally looked to the Turtle beside her, then to the sleeping rat, huddled up under the blanket.

_Two weeks or so_, she thought. In two weeks… or so, Splinter should be better, and she would be able to return to her old live. She stood up.

"Well then. If I _have_ to stay here for some more time, just let us make one thing clear: Your home is in a mess! Havn´t you cleaned up just one single time since Splinter was missing? You´ll start tomorrow to tidy this pigpen!"

Donatello was too taken by surprise to argue properly. "Yeah? Or what?"

Tally smiled evilly. "Or I´ll tell him when he´ll awaken tomorrow!"

Don looked at his sleeping father. "Hey! That´s extortion!"

Tally grinned. If she thought about it, this two weeks or a little bit longer would for sure become interesting.

N/A: Well, Tally is introduced… the long way. Now I can start with the interesting part… hopefully faster than this chapter.


	11. Training

Looooong time since the last update… but I won´t give up!  
Thanks to Cynlee for beta reading and correcting, and thanks to everyone who still has the patience to follow this story.  
TMNT belong to Mirage

Chapter 11: Training

Tally sat a little bit aside from Splinter and watched him while he supervised the training of the Turtles. He still had his arm and his leg in bandages, but besides that he was fine. During the second day after Raph's encounter with the men from the circus she feared he would get a pneumonia. When she said so, Leonardo left the Lair and came back a few hours later, carrying a large bottle with a green liquid in it and accompanied by another mutant, who introduced himself with a polished manner as "Miyamoto Usagi ".

At this rate, Tally was not even wondering any more. She just asked herself if it wouldn´t hurt to tie up one´s ears this way- especially those long ears. They later told her that the rabbit with the swords was actually not another mutant, but from another dimension.

Not that this would have made a difference to her.

First, she protested when they infused her furry patient with the liquid, but nobody cared. After three days, in which Splinter became noticeably stronger, she asked for the recipe.

Another week later, he moved from the sanitary area to the sofa in the living room, although he had still problems walking without help. Tally couldn't help but stare. She had never seen anyone recovering that fast, but the Turtles didn´t seemed surprised.

When she asked again about the strange medicine, Donatello and Michelangelo told her two very different stories about the battle nexus and Mikey dragged her out of Don´s lab and into his room, so that she could admire his trophy, while he told her the story of his great battle and his terrifying opponents again and again. Tally thought to herself that his most terrifying opponent must have been his brother Raphael and smiled, which encouraged Mikey to tell the story a fourth time.

She didn´t mind. With no siblings, no living relatives and no really close friends ( her work has always been first), she kind of embraced them all. Leonardo, who was polished, reliable and responsible; Donatello, being reserved, but on the other hand exuberant when a conversation led to engineering; Raphael, who avoided her if possible, and Mikey, who possessed an absolutely cheerful nature. In private she envied them a little bit about being so close to each other- about being a family.

And Splinter. She was not be able to make head or tails of him. On his own way he was even more diffident than Raphael. At the very moment his fever declined, Tally asked herself how she could have ever thought of him as helpless. Behind his calm, self controlled attitude was a iron hard determination.

After around two weeks she thought she would get a stroke when she saw Splinter apparently starting with Ninjitsu training. When she jumped at him and gripped his shoulders to force him back at the sofa, he just looked up and although he didn´t utter a single sound, she suddenly didn´t dare to hold him any longer against his will. Luckily he just performed Tai Chi, for she was sure she would have lost her nerves otherwise.

He sure was difficult! On top of it, he called her "Miss Brown" again instead of "Tally", which was some kind of personal insult in her eyes. After all they have been through, one would think he saw her as a friend.

On the other hand, he hardly called April with her given name, too.

Three weeks had passed by now and Tally still lived in the Lair, although she slept now in a room the Turtles had used as a storage room. She referred it to herself as some kind of vacation, for she had to go back to the "surface live" soon enough and there were a whole bunch of problems waiting for her- police, insurance…  
She sighed at the mere thought of it.

Splinter watched Leonardo and Donatello sparring. They both were highly concentrating , watching each other carefully and searching for a opening in the defense of their opponent. Donatello struck, aiming for Leonardo's side, but he dodged it and kicked Donatello in the plastron. Donatello stumbled and Leo disarmed him at once.

"Well done", said Splinter to indicate that the fight was over, then he walked to Donatello to show him another counter strike movement. While Leo and Don listened, Raph didn´t pay attention and Mikey was goofing around. Splinter sighed. Although he had to admit that making Raphael so angry that he didn´t think clearly anymore was a safe way to beat him, he told Mikey to exercise another hour in the dojo after the "official" training.

"Sit down, my sons" he advised them and prepared for meditation. He waited until his sons sat in a line in front of him, then he closed his eyes.

But the usual calmness of meditation wouldn't occur. Instead, his mind was filled with thoughts about their latest house guest. It was… irritating. And irrational. He never felt disturbed by Miss O'Neil or Mr. Jones.

Wait… he sighed silently. Mr. Jones- oh yes. But in a totally different way. Staying calm was impossible when Raphael and his friend wrestled on the floor.

A few days ago he supervised April´s ninjitsu training. He had seen both women talking for hours with each other. They seemed to have become friends, so he wasn´t wondering when Tally came along and watched April's efforts. After some time, she asked if she could join. He agreed, demonstrating a few warming-up exercises and then some basic hits.

She executed them, he stood half behind her, and he reached for her wrist to correct her position. Then he felt her warm skin at his hand, he felt the tips of her hair at his cheek and smelt her scent, slight traces of sweat, green tea and the peach shampoo she had used this morning. For a split second he paused, totally unaware why he had touched her at all. Then she stiffened, he flinched embarrassed and confined himself to giving only verbal comments for the rest of the lesson.

Luckily, nobody had noticed, even though ((April commented that this lesson would have been shorter than usual. He explained that he still was easily exhausted. While the two women headed for the bathroom, he didn´t dare to look at Tally.

Even now, he shifted his weight on his ankles with unease. He didn´t know what was the problem, or how to behave. Should he apologize? He had continued the training the next three days up to today, and had touched neither April nor Tally. He stayed formal while he had to talk with her, and avoided her otherwise, which wasn´t that easy.

To be honest, he enjoyed to talk talking with her. Again, he shifted his weight. He surely had to come to a decision, or the situation would become worse. She already appeared to be offended. But not now. He would meditate upon this later, when he was in his room and alone. 

"Open your eyes, my sons."

They bowed, he bowed back, then he left the dojo after Leonardo and retreated into his room.

Michaelangelo watched him going and then he asked (very quietly) Donatello: "Wasn´t I supposed to get some extra training?"

Donatello raised his eyebrows surprised.

"Maybe he forgot it?"

"Master Splinter? Never ever!"

"Then you should consider yourself a lucky Turtle who-"

"-has lots of free time for video games! Want some Alien Invaders?"

Donatello peered at his energetic brother. An extra training session would have given him time to work in his lab. But he knew exactly, if he would refuse now, Mikey would do his very best to be a pain in the neck for the rest of the day.

He deeply sighed.

"If need be…"

Mikey was already at the monitor wand. "I take the red controller!"

Donatello followed less excited.

They were in the midst of a space combat when Michelangelo suddenly asked: "You think he´s ill?"

Donatello looked at him, irritated. "Who?"

"Master Splinter!"

"Of course he´s still ill."

"No, I mean…" Mikey hedged, "He… usually he never forgets anything, and… and… he forgot the extra lesson and and and… he´s not getting any younger".

He only whispered the last part and looked away.

Donatello stared at his younger brother, misunderstanding until he finally realized what Mikey tried to say.

"Nonsense!"

They turned to the computer game again, dropping the subject in tacit consent. But the fun was over, and when Donatello quit the game a few minutes later Michelangelo didn´t complain.

Don went to his lab, deep in thought. Although he had rejected Mikey's speculation immediately, he pondered it over and over. His master had been hurt severely, when the Foot had strangled him, and when he was near-drowning his cerebrum was undersupplied with oxygen, and then he had had this high fever…

Don shook his head resolutely. What was he thinking? But he had to admit, Splinter behaves very strange these days. He was unusually inattentive. Nervous. A few times he didn´t even notice when someone addressed him. Don sighed deeply, then he went slowly to the bookshelf, took out a medical encyclopedia and searched for "Alzheimer´s disease".

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Tally sat on the rim of the tub and watched April putting makeup on. She wondered in private if Casey would notice it. Surely not. Nevertheless, April worked on her eyelashes carefully. She waited until April lay aside the mascara, before she asked: "Do you think Splinter is still angry at me?"

April turned around. "Why should he? You rescued him, didn´t you?"  
Tally measured her words carefully. "Well, because of Rob he was caged and Rob was my-". Her voice broke.

April sat down beside her and took hold of her hand. She waited a few moments, then she asked hesitantly: "Did you love him?"

Tally wasn´t sure what to answer. She shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno."

"You would know if you´d been serious about him."

Tally waved her other hand meaningless. April smiled vaguely.

"You just know how people are when you experience them in extreme situations."

Tally nodded sadly. "I also think it´s better this way."

She didn´t wish to resume that topic.

"Mikey is great and I really get along with Leonardo and Donatello. Raphael can´t stand me, but that´s okay as long as he doesn´t fall in his attitude of that night again. But Splinter has been avoiding me for quite some time now, he even refuses to speak with me."

A smile crept across April´s face. "You shouldn´t pay so much attention to Raph's mood changes. It takes months until he fully trust someone. It´s just his nature. And Splinter talks about his feelings once in a blue moon. It´s hard to say what he thinks about someone. But he is keen to be polite, so you should just ask him what´s wrong."

The two women left the bathroom. Tally was still deep in thought when something nudged her back. "Hi!"

"IIIEEEH!"

Shocked she jumped in the air and turned around. Mikey backed off, embarrassed. Then he smiled widely .

"Did I startle you?"

Tally pressed her hands against her chest and breathed deeply, watching Mikey grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Sorry sis. I just wondered… can you bake a chocolate cake?" he asked innocently, performing his best puppy-dog eyes.

Tally shook her head in disbelief.

Mikey opened opened the door to Raph's room.

"Kitchen´s waiting, Raphie!"

"What?"

"I told you I can persuade her to bake a cake. Now it´s your turn, or you won´t get anything!"

He hastily closed the door so that the pillow wouldn't hit him.

Nevertheless, one and a half hour later they all sat together and enjoyed a marble cake. Mikey had agreed toTally's condition that _he_ would clean the kitchen later. Then she had had a very hard time rescuing the cake batter, because she had stupidly agreed to let him clean out the bowl, but unfortunately forgot to say he was allowed to do so _after_ she put the better part in the cake pan.

Now he already gulped his second piece of cake. She was so sure he would get an upset stomach after that .

Raphael sat at the other side of the table, once in a while throwing a moody look at her. She wondered why, but she hadn´t heard the previous talk between Mikey and Raphael. She was just curious why Raphael had cleaned the kitchen.

Splinter sat in his armchair, slowly eating his piece. He had thanked her, but didn´t look at her. Now it seemed to take his whole concentration to prick the fork in his piece of cake. Tally looked at the Turtles. She was not the only one to watch Splinter. Donatello and Mikey observed him as well. Finally Splinter noticed the three looks glued to him. He looked up. "What´s the matter, my sons?"

Hastily the two averted their eyes and mumbled something unintelligible. Leonardo looked up. Raphael turned his eyes.

Splinter waited a few seconds, then he turned his attention to his cake again. He felt awkward. Michelangelo and Donatello had been watching him the whole afternoon, and having Tally at close quarters wasn´t actually helping. The meal ended in silence, but from the corner of his eye he looked at Mikey and Don and saw them watching him the same way. He finished quickly, stood up, bowed before Tally- _Miss Brown_, why did he call her Tally by himself?- thanked her again for the cake and took refuge in his room. He finally felt safe when he closed the paper-covered door behind him.

What was _wrong_ with him?

He forced himself to take a deep breath, then he lit a few joss sticks and some candles. This familiar, routine act helped him to ease up. He knelt down on a pillow and allowed his mind to drift, to let go of sorrows and discomfort. Then he concentrated on the feeling of the pillow under his knees, the warm air, the scent of the incense, the candle wax and something else…

Splinter opened his eyes and moaned, frustrated. For the first time in his life, he regretted his sharp sense of smell. Although Leonardo had changed the sheets, she had slept in his bed and her scent was still on some of the pillows. He looked at them wearily, then he grabbed a plastic bag and stuffed the pillows into it. He knotted the bag, lay it aside and kneeled on his cushion, hoping that he could _finally_ meditate in peace now, when this special scent reached his nose again.  
It knocked at the door.

"May I enter?"


	12. Talking

Just the regular things to report…

TMNT are property of Mirage; I do not owe them or make any profit with this story (then I would update much more frequently!).

Great thanks to Cynlee for beta-reading and corrections!

**Chapter 12: Talking**

"May I enter?"

Her words hovered in the room. For a split second he was tempted to ignore her. Then he nodded, hesitant, then immediately shook his head vehemently. She could not even see him at all!

He breathed deeply, then he said: "Yes, of course."

Tally came in and closed the door behind her. Splinter watched her carefully, and then he remembered his good manners, jumped up and offered her a seat. She sat down across from him. While he had given her a cushion, her fingers had run over his hand. He felt the smoothness of her skin, saw her hair gleaming and smelled again this specific scent- and felt his nervousness rising. He swallowed hard and looked away, searching in his mind for an innocent topic of conversation- and hoped that his voice wouldn't tremble.

Tally watched him while he sat down again. He moved in a unique, totally self-controlled way, avoiding every unneeded move. She hadn't been that close to him since her first ninjitsu lesson. For a brief second, he looked straight in her eyes; once again she was astonished by the strength, which seemed to belie his age .

Finally Splinter broke the silence. "What is the matter, Ms. Brown?"

His voice sounded odd- croaky, although he was so much better. She briefly worried, and then she made a face. "First of all, I would really prefer it if you call me Tally again."

Splinter nodded slightly but stayed silent otherwise. "Well, and-"

CRASH!

Both winced, as something in the dojo caused an ear-splitting noise. The rattle sounded metallic. Tally looked inquiring at Splinter, who sighed deeply. "That sounded like the pedestal for the katana and naginata", he commented.

When he opened the door of his room, Michelangelo was already putting the weapons on the pedestal. The cause of the noise - a basketball - lay to one side. Splinter looked at the scene. Mikey froze instantly, squeezing out "It was an accident", then the rat crossed over to his student, picked up the ball, muttered "Clean this up, we will talk later" and went back to his room, where he pushed the ball into a corner.

Tally could hardly restrain herself from laughing. Mike's freezing pose, while holding sharp weapons in both hands, looked so funny that she desired a camera. When Splinter turned his back to him, Mikey grinned at her and Tally waved back. Then he hastily cleaned up and glanced wistfully in the direction of his confiscated basketball. Luckily, he had two more.

Splinter was almost thankful for the break his son had provided him. He was so confused at the moment; he hardly knew what to do.

Tally asked from behind: "Maybe we should talk in a more quiet place. What about a walk?"

He turned around, astonished. "In the sewers?"

She shrugged. "Why not? Can't be worse!"

Slightly overstrained with this whole situation, he agreed.

----------------------------------------

They walked alongside through the pipes. There was very little water in them. Tally listened to the sound of her sneakers - _splish splash_- and to Splinter's nearly noiseless footsteps.

"Don't you get cold feet?" she asked abruptly, pointing at his bare feet.

Splinter chuckled. "I'm used to it. But I hope you're not freezing?"

Tally shook her head. "It's surprisingly warm, although it's nearly December."

"It's always warmer down here than in the streets above. During the winter, some homeless people come down here; we have to be more careful then. But the temperature hasn't dropped down to freezing yet, so it should be safe right now. Now right, please."

Tally followed Splinter's instructions, and soon-

"Wow! That's beautiful!"

Tally was amazed. They walked through an old, shut-down subway station. It was dusty and run-down, but she could still see the pillars, the tiling, and the mosaics on the walls. "How long has this station been abandoned?"

"I do not know. Sixteen years ago it looked the same. There are a lot of places like this- the subway and the sewer system is even more complex than the streets on the surface, and they reach very deep into the earth. There are some natural caves, too."

Tally turned around. "And you have explored this all?"

"Just a very small part. But I never forget a way I already walked on."

They left the subway station and moved on, falling silent for the moment. But this time, Tally enjoyed it. It was strange, her life was practically in shards, but nevertheless- she felt almost happy. She glanced at the mutant walking beside her. How could she have ever thought of him as of an animal? She had hardly ever met anyone with such a fascinating personality, even if his over-politeness could be annoying. Curious about what he would show her next, she followed him deeper into the sewer system.

The tubes became smaller and lower. Tally had to duck down, otherwise she wouldn't fit through. Splinter merely lowered his head. And again, Tally could not feel something other than full admiration, when she watched his dexterity and self-assurance. Whatever had bothered and distracted him these last days, it seemed to be gone now. For a few seconds, she remembered that she was following a giant talking rat through the biggest maze on earth, and that she would be totally lost if he abandoned her. Then she smiled lightly. She realized that she absolutely trusted him.

From time to time, Splinter glanced at the woman walking- and crouching- besides him and noticed she was watching him, too. He had enjoyed showing her that old subway tunnel and giving her an insight to his world. The sewers did not have to be filthy and rotten, there was beauty, too- at least as long as one stayed away from the wastewater disposal lines and followed only the rainwater pipes and the subway and servicing tunnels.

They fell silent, but this time it felt different. It was a peaceful silence, like between friends which understand each other without words. His sensitive ears caught the sound of her breathing, of her clothes brushing against the wall. He hoped the fabric wouldn't suffer too much. He was long used to walking in this environment and barely got stuck somewhere.

They reached an open place, where several pipes intersected. High over Tally's head was a drain. Splinter stopped and looked about, as if he had to remember where he was. Tally swallowed hardly. He hadn't forgotten the way, had he?

Then he turned around and smiled at Tally. "This is the place where my sons and I first met each other. I came through that drain after I had witnessed the accident, and there" he pointed at the ground "was the ooze."

He kneeled down and reached out with his hand, as if he could still see the small turtles paddling helplessly in the mutagenous liquid. Lost in thought as he was, he flinched lightly when Tally touched his shoulder. He smiled at her, than he stood up and sighed.

Tally knew without any doubt what was in his mind. "They do not stay small forever."

"No… they don't". Splinter agreed. "But although I wondered every evening why my fur was still grey, I wouldn't had wanted to live without them… I _couldn't_ have. I needed them as much as they needed me… I still do." He looked at the wall, deep in memory.

Splinter smiled absently while he remembered. His life had really changed that moment- for the better. Although he missed his "baby turtles" sometimes, he was proud of what they had become- strong and responsible. They kicked over the traces sometimes, but he could not blame them- they were teenagers. He loved them dearly, no matter what.

They kept moving, Tally followed Splinter trustfully through the confusing labyrinth of tunnels, until Splinter stopped again, this time in front of a hole in the wall.

"What's that?" Tally asked and Splinter answered softly: "This was my first burrow- our first lair".

Tally looked at the maybe two cubic meters big hole. It was hardly big enough to hold Splinter, but him_ and_ the four Turtles… "You must have been much smaller then", she commented.

"Indeed. But it was sixteen years ago. At that time, we were still more or less normal."

"So your mutation was sixteen years ago, and before that you were a normal rat, is that true?"

Splinter nodded. He had already told her and didn't understand what she was up to, especially when she suddenly snorted with laughter. She laughed so hard that she had to support herself at the wall.

"Tally? Is everything all right?"

She just laughed harder, and when she was finally able to answer him, she was interrupted by new outbursts.

"Sorry, I… buahaha … I … just realised… Heck, Splinter, you're much younger than me!"

And she sank to ground, still laughing, while Splinter stood beside her, with a totally confused look on his face, which did not exactly help her to calm down.

Tally needed a few minutes to quiet down. Finally she was calm enough to sit down next to Splinter on the rim of their first lair. But Tally was not willing to give it a rest.

"Honestly, how old were you as a rat?"

Splinter shrugged. "I do not know. Time had no meaning for me back then. A few years, I would guess."

"Let's say between three and five. Plus sixteen… Hey, maybe you're still underage!" Tally started to giggle again.

"You forget something in your calculation. My sons were babies when we came into contact with the ooze, but I was already an adult in rat years. Sixteen plus something between forty and fifty would be adequate, I suppose. By the way, how old are you?"

Tally smiled mischievously. "There are two questions you must never ask a woman- how old she is, and what's her weight. Better for you health, believe me. But I'm thirty- two."

"Were you born here?"

"Yes, in New York. Single child. I studied here as well, never really left the city. You're from Japan?"

"From Tokyo, but I do not remember much from that time… Besides, I was mostly in the house of my master."

"Your owner."

"It does not feel… right to speak about him in such a way. He was more for me, and I for him. Even as rat I felt so."

Tally doubted it, but didn't want to argue. For a moment they fell silent and watched the water streaming under their feet. Then Tally spoke again.

"Somehow you're lucky. You have no duties to run after, no job which drives you mad, no trouble with insurances and taxes, the police; you're unaccountable. Must be nice…"

Splinter did not take this statement as personal, but as a lament from someone whose life was practically in shards.

"I'm free to starve, to freeze to death in the winter, to be shot by a scared policeman. I may not have human duties, but I do not have human rights either. And I _am_ responsible for my family."

Tally nodded slightly.

"I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to insult you, it's just…."

Splinter understood. He placed a hand on her arm gently to reassure her, but Tally clung to his arm as if to her very life.

"I'm sorry", she whispered, barely able to restrain herself, "the last two weeks and everything… It was just a little bit too much."

Splinter noticed that she fought back her tears, and so he said nothing, just offering her company and comfort, and that was everything Tally wanted for the moment.


	13. Until The Very End

Sorry for the long delay, but so this chapter will be a little bit longer and the climax of this fic so far

Sorry for the long delay, but so this chapter will be a little bit longer and the climax of this fic so far. I'm not so good at action scenes, yet I hope you like it nevertheless.

TMNT, Shredder, Splinter etc. belong to Mirage; Tally Brown is mine.

Great thanks to Cynlee for betaing and corrections!

And thanks to everyone who still has the patience to follow this story.

Chapter 13: Until the Very End

"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you.

There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do..."

Toto: In Africa

Tally clung to Splinter's shoulder as if to her dear live, desperately sobbing. She hardly noticed how he tried to calm her, gently stroking her back and soothing her overwhelming inner pain. He held her in his arms, speaking softly with her, while she sopped his shoulder with her tears. She couldn't hold back any longer. Somehow, she had still believed that her life would turn to normal eventually, that this whole affair would be over and forgotten soon and everyday routine would come back to her. A normal life, _her_ normal life. No turtles, no angry men chasing and threatening her.

No Splinter.

But when she buried her face in the fabric of his robe and felt his soft fur at her cheek, she suddenly realized: She did not want to miss him. He had become a part of her live already. Still sobbing, she tightened her embrace. This was so _unfair_. Life was unfair. And what the hell was she just doing? They did not even belong to the same species, and nevertheless…

She pressed her cheek against his, feeling the tips of his whiskers in her neck. Involuntarily a thought of Robert flashed into her mind. Almost subconsciously she compared Splinters kindness with Robert's arrogance. How could she ever have gotten a crush on Robert? Slowly she turned her face towards Splinters.

Splinter was in an inner turmoil as well. He had given his sons a shoulder to cry on when they were younger, but he could hardly compare that with his present situation. Despite his prejudice, he embraced Tally as well, doing his best to calm her down. With his nose nearly in her hair, he inhaled her special scent, this time mixed with sweat and the salty smell of tears. He carefully stroked her back, saying softly that she was safe and no one would harm her, that everything would turn out fine. The whole time he was fully aware of her soft skin at his cheek, pressing against his face, her tears wetting his fur, and even if he would not admit to himself, he slightly relished the feeling of holding her in his arms, of being so close with her.

Then she moved her face- and suddenly he felt the sensation of her lips pressed against his. His lips prickled, and suddenly his stomach stirred and he broke out in a sweat. Abruptly the sewers weren't cold anymore, his body felt red-hot. Instinctively he returned the kiss.

She had kissed other men before. This time however, it felt almost like an electric shock. Her eyes closed, she pressed harder against his lips, feeling him responding and tightening his embrace. She almost lost herself - until realization struck both of them like a lightning bolt.

Embarrassed, they immediately separated. They didn't dare to look at each other and stared at the opposite wall. It was an awkward situation.

Splinter cleared his throat. "I… I am sorry", he said slowly, unsure what to say or to do. Tally shifted her shoulders in discomfort and jumped up. She did not face him.

"Let's just… forget it, okay?" she said to the wall.

She didn't wait for Splinter's reply and started to walk further into the sewer system. Splinter had to hurry to follow her. Both made sure that there was at least a meter space between them. They walked in silence, but now it felt uncomfortable and odd. Tally wasn't sure about her feelings. Had she really _kissed_ him? She knew him for only a few weeks, and he was… she risked a side-glance. Splinter walked a few steps behind her, looking straight forward, his face expressionless. Her thoughts must have short-circuited. Already lost in this maze she moved on and Splinter followed her silently.

He looked into the dark tunnel, avoiding staring at her back. How _could_ he just… Had he really been that stupid and taken advantage of her situation? But she had started, in the first place. He slightly shook his head and tried to restructure his thoughts. It was almost like a daydream. He really cared about her, but in such a way? He wasn't sure about his own feelings. So he just followed her as she stomped through the filthy water. Her inner uproar was much more visible than his.

After some time, Tally couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Hasn't it been difficult to live all on your own, with four toddlers?" she asked, picking up their previous conversation. She felt his gaze at her back. What a stupid question! Of course it has been difficult.

"When they were very small, I had to lock up them to gather food. Later they understood that I had to leave them frequently, although they were always worried- and I was, too…

They chatted as they walked on, carefully avoiding what had happened just a few minutes before. Nevertheless, they constantly watched each other closely and their talk became more private again. They talked about their past, Tally's youth as well as Splinter's experiences with raising the Turtles, about their liked and dislikes, their families and friends- and eventually, they walked side by side again, just enjoying their friendship. Yet there was more, beneath the surface of their talk. What did she have to say to make him chuckle, what memory Splinter shared with her would let her smile? It was as if they encircled each other with words and played a game of tagging, a game that was so much older than their short acquaintance, and although Splinter was rather inexperienced, he did well.

Suddenly he stopped.

"What's the matter", Tally asked irritated, but Splinter waved her to be silent.

"Do you hear this?"

Tally fell silent for a moment and listened, and then she shook her head. "Nothing".

Splinter looked around and orientated himself with the surrounding tunnels.

"I haven't been in this part of the sewer system for a long time… I'm not quite sure where exactly we are. We should go back immediately before we get lost."

"From where does the noise come?"

Splinter pointed to a tunnel.

"From there, but-"

Tally was already headed into the direction.

"Let's take a look and find out."

"Tally! We should leave, we do not know what's causing the sound."

"I don't hear anything at all, but I want to find out. Maybe you're just worried about nothing at all."

Splinter had no other choice than to follow her. He knew her already well enough to know that he couldn't change her mind that easily. But this noise did scare him more than he admitted. It was a deep, constant hum, barely audible even for his sensitive senses in the beginning, but when they followed the tunnel it became louder and louder until Tally could hear it as well.

"I hear it now, too", she whispered. She could barely see in the dim pipe and pressed against the wall, which vibrated softly. "What the-"

"Some kind of big machines", Splinter said slowly. He laid his hand on the wall and felt the vibrations as well. "There shouldn't be any repair work in this area, it's always announced weeks before in TV and the newspapers".

His tone became more urgent.

"Tally, we should really leave!"

"Don't you want to know what is causing this sound?"

"Not like this. My sons may investigate, but I would prefer to keep you out of danger."

"YOU want to keep ME out of danger? I'm able to look for myself!"

"Can't we discuss that somewhere else?"

But Tally already left. Splinter hurried after her and grabbed her sleeve.

"Let go!"

"For heavens sake, please be silent!"

Then he turned around nervously. There had been a slight _tap _from the direction they had come from… He stepped deeper into the tunnel.

"So, suddenly you want to find out-"

"We're being followed."

He tightened his grip around her sleeve and wrist, almost feeling the presence behind them.

"Tally", he whispered, "please don't talk anymore, and just nod. We MUST get away from this place!"

His nervousness was catching. Tally nodded silent, and then she followed him. Splinter perk up his ears and tried to catch a sound from their pursuer, but there was nothing. Unfortunately, there was no side tunnel either. They could only go forward, directly to the source of the machine sound.

"You're not kidding, are you?"

Splinter shook his head and touched his lips with his fingers. Tally nodded again.

The tunnel became brighter; there was a light source somewhere in front of them. The walls looked thicker here- and newer. They passed a few side tunnels, but each one was blocked up. They had no change to escape. Right in front of them, the tunnel turned around a corner. The light, as well as the now overwhelming stamping machine sound seemed to come from there. They stopped, and then Splinter looked up, a question in his eyes. Tally nodded nervously and gulped, then she searched for his hand and pressed it tightly.

"We don't have much of a choice, have we?" she said in a low voice. They carefully peered around the corner.

--

Leo looked up to clock. It was almost time to eat, yet Splinter hadn't come back. He became worried, for he couldn't reach his master via the Shell Cell, which seemed to be deactivated. When he went to the lab to ask his brother if he could track down Splinter, he found Donatello sitting at his desk, staring at a test tube and muttering angrily.

"What's wrong?" he asked curious, surprised by his brothers angry face.

"I forgot to label the test tube."

Leo glanced at the innocent looking clear liquid.

"And?"

"It could be EVERYTHING!" Don snarled. "I already ran a few tests, but I've worked with a lot of dangerous chemicals today, so I can't just pour it into the drain! Oh man, I don't get it. I do ALWAYS label my equipment!"

He stared furious at the fluid as if he could force it to tell him its nature by pure willpower. After a second look at Don's expression, Leo decided to better change the subject.

"Do you know where Master Splinter and Tally went?"

"On a walk?" Don asked absently and rummaged in a box filled with flasks.

"It's almost seven and I can't contact him!"

Don stopped and turned around to his brother.

"He does so NOT appreciate it when we sneak after him."

But after he tried the Shell Cell as well without a more promising result than his brother, he agreed to track Splinter down. After a few key presses, he pointed at an orange dot on his monitor. Leo frowned.

"That's almost at the other end of Manhattan!"

The dot remained at the same place. Don typed a new order.

"His Shell Cell is switched off and I can't activate it from here."

Leo nodded.

"Let's go and check this out."

He left the lair to tell his other brothers and almost fell on Mikey, who spied on Don in his lab. Before Leo could ask him what he was doing, Mikey wanted to know:

"Did he find out already that I just put a tube filled with water in the rack?"

Leo just sighed and went for Raphael.

--

They stood in the entrance of a floor lit cave. Blinded, they narrowed their eyes, but Splinter recognized the machine standing in the middle of the cavern immediately. Besides him, Tally took a sharp breath.

"What is that?" she asked amazed, having only eyes for the machines and didn't paying attention to the men working around it. Splinter gripped his cane faster. Even without the sound of her exclamation they were detected and at once surrounded by around twenty foot ninja, which held their weapons nonchalant in their hands. Their facemasks could not hide their sneers, confident of victory. They had already awaited them, alarmed by the guard in the sewers.

Tally swallowed hard, but hold her tongue. Splinter grabbed her wrist and retreated slowly to a wall. The tips of the katana followed his movements, but the foot didn't attack. They didn't have to, they knew as well as Splinter did. He had no chance, especially not with Tally. He concentrated on their leader, who casually waved his hand. The meaning was clear: Weapons down, and hands up. In the corner of his right eye he saw a unit of foot coming from the sewers and blocking up the entrance, which was the only exit he could figure out. With his right paw he held Tally's hand. She was becoming more and more nervous. She sweated and trembled visibly.

In what kind of situation she had gotten herself into again? It almost felt surreal, being surrounded by a bunch of guys dressed up in black pajamas, but the swords looked damned sharp. Splinter beside her stayed totally calm, holding her hand gently with no sign of an inner turmoil. What was he up to? He could not really considering fighting them, could he? Tally looked around nervously. The entrance on their right was blocked, at their left side was a buildup of boxes, behind that the cave went on. The big machine in the middle of the cavern hummed constantly. She had never seen anything like it before and would have gladly done without this experience. And then Splinter suddenly dug his claws into her palm!

"OUWW! What the-"

She immediately retreated her hand and stepped back, for a split second the attention of the foot was concentrated on her- and the world went gray.

Splinter honestly regretted that he had to hurt her; he needed a distraction to be able to throw a smoke bomb. He grabbed Tally's hand and pulled her to the ground-within the very last moment as he heard the sound of shuriken digging into the wall above them. As fast as he could he crawled through the smoke towards the box pile and dragged Tally along. Behind the boxes he had seen a metal door, so maybe, _maybe_ there was still a slight chance…

A katana came swung out of nowhere and slashed his right arm. Unwillingly he let go of Tally's hand, but he turned around at once, hit his cane at a venture into the direction the sword had come from and was rewarded with a painfully groan. He managed to grab a hand of Tally's pullover, pushed her into the direction of the door and covered her with his own body. The smoke already vanished; he saw the silhouette of a foot standing directly in front of him. The ninja attacked, Splinter ducked and landed a definite hit into his solar plexus. His enemy convulsed with pain and fell to the floor, being disabled for quite some time. Splinter lifted the katana the foot had dropped, turned around to Tally and ran to the door. In the nick of time they managed to close it behind them. Weapons dashed against the metal. Splinter pressed his back against the door and kept the door closed with all his power. It was useless, nevertheless. They were stuck within a little chamber with no exits, surrounded by walls out of stone. There was no way out.

"Trapped like the literally rats", Tally murmured shakily.

Splinter didn't reply. He scanned the walls for a possible weak point. Then he sighed.

"Looks like our only way out is heavily under siege. Well, we have no choice. Even if they wouldn't manage to come through this door, they would just have to wait. Sooner or later we have to go out. Tally, have a look at the boxes over there. Anything we could use?"

Tally glanced at the boxes hopelessly, but she did as he requested.

"I can't even open them. They're locked."

She turned around. Splinter leaned against the door, deeply pondering while trying to keep it closed. Only now Tally noticed his soaked right sleeve. Under his elbow there was a red puddle, which was expanded by more and more blood leaking down his arm.

"You're hurt!"

"That's my least concern at the moment. I lost my shell cell somewhere out there… So we cannot call for help."

Tally examined his arm.

"That's a deep cut. I have to bandage it up… close you eyes."

"Why?"

When he noticed that Tally was about to doff her pullover he immediately obeyed and turned his head around. She slipped her undershirt off, put on her pullover

"You can open your eyes now"

and ripped the shirt into stripes, which she used as a makeshift bandage. The sleeves of her pullover and her hands became red and gluey of his blood.

Splinter was sure he couldn't bear up another fight. He hardly felt his right arm and his vision was blurred by dancing white spots. Yet he had to get at least Tally out of here.

"Listen. I have a few more smoke bombs. I will distract them; you hide beneath those boxes and at the first opportunity you will run. Go to April's place, not to the lair! They'll follow your for sure, but I'll do my best to-"

"Have you totally lost it? They are going to kill you!"

"Not at once. With this superiority they'll want to catch me alive so the Shredder can do the job personally. And somebody has to tell my sons… not only about my capture, but also about the machine out there. It's a utrom transmat."

"A what?"

"My sons do know. The foot… they MUST not be allowed to activate it, do you understand? It's essential, and much more important than my life. If the Shredder manages to use this machine, billions will suffer! He had tried to get one before. The foot searched deep under the city for an utrom base, but they didn't find it back then. Seems as if they were right all along."

"You can not honestly think that I'll run and leave you here! You have the better chance to make it back to your turtles anyway. They would catch me in an instant!"

"They don't know you. Maybe they'll let you escape, especially when they have to worry about me. I can fight them off long enough for you to reach the exit, you couldn't do so. And I…"

Splinter looked away and didn't face her anymore. Behind them, katana still stroke the door. The blade of one stabbed through the gap in the doorway and got stuck vibrating.

"Yes?" Tally. Suddenly her mouth got dry.

Splinter addressed the wall.

"If something would happen to you- I could never forgive myself."

Tally blushed. Then she reached forward and gently touched his shoulder.

"Hey. We'll make it!"

She smiled reassuringly. Splinter looked directly in her eyes.

"You will leave. You will run until you are safe. Do you understand? You will NOT hesitate!"

For a moment Tally was tempted to give a sharp reply, but she could see in his face that he was serious about the situation- and about her. So she held back the remark. Instead she leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss on his cheek. Bewildered Splinter raised his hand and touched the spot, looking inquiring at her.

"For luck", she said softly.

Splinter hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to save the memory. What irony! To find someone as her, now as both of them were going to die… He vowed to himself to make sure that Tally would get out of this mess alive, no matter the cost. He carefully touched her fingertips. He didn't dare to go further, he had to keep his head clear. Easier said than done. But what thought! As if this wannabe-ninja were going to separate them! He had fought them many times before; they were no match for him. He gripped Tally's hand tightly.

A sharp bang at the metal behind him brought him back into reality. He cleared his throat.

"Tally, just in case. In my room, there's a lashed up box at the lowest storage rack board… for my sons."

Tally swallowed hard, but nodded. They stood up, still hand in hand. Then Splinter let reluctantly go of her and took out another smoke bomb. At his questioning look, Tally nodded her head in agreement, so Splinter threw the door open and dropped the bomb.

--

Donatello led the way, consulting the monitor of his tracking system every now and then. Leonardo and Michelangelo followed him in silence, only Raphael was constantly muttering under his breath.

"Why are we following them at all? I bet everything is just fine!"

"Yeah", Mikey smirked. "I guess they just want to be alone-Ouch!" Mikey took a leap to get out of Raph's range. "What? I mean, he even cut off his shell cell-OUCHOUCHOUCH!"

"MIKEY!"

Being slapped by all of his brothers and being clearly outnumbered, even Mikey thought it would be wiser to keep his mouth shut. Which didn't stop his smug smile. Heck, what was their problem? He actually liked the idea of Tally being around more often or even staying- her cake was fantastic!

"That doesn't prove anything", Don said although the situation made him uneasy. "He had disconnected the communicator before."

"But he's never run two and a half hour late", Raph snorted contemptuously.

"Well, the signal hasn't moved the last half an hour".

Don's general statement was accepted in silence. Every one of the brothers was absorbed in his own thoughts- and in his own conclusions.

--

Splinter had defended the door long enough for Tally seeking cover. Then he retreated with his back to a wall, so that he had at least not to worry about an attack from behind. Not that it would make much of a difference. His captivity was a matter of time, but his assertion toward Tally seemed to be right. They really tried to take him alive, but unfortunately not unharmed. He was already bleeding from a dozen superficial cuts. Under normal circumstances he would have surrendered and waited for a more fitting bargain to escape, but he was determined to buy Tally as much time as possible. He hoped she had already left the cave, for he couldn't possibly fight much longer.

Tally watched Splinter from behind the cover of the boxes. There had been no possibility for her to leave unnoticed, but just a few meter away was his communicator lying! If she could at least reach it… When she felt not being watched, she gathered all her bravery and leaped behind a few glass cylinders filled with a green liquid. If a foot would watch in her direction he would probably notice her, but the shell cell was nearly in range- then she heard the shot.

Splinter ducked in the very last moment and felt the heat of the laser shoot singing his fur. Obviously they had changed their strategy. So did he. Leaping sideways, he avoided the next shot and ran as fast as he could to the transmat. Three foot got in his way. The last one ended up with Splinters katana in his chest. Splinter got to the control board. If he couldn't destroy the transmat, he could at any rate do as much damage as possible, so he picked up a fist tall stone and smashed it all out into the console. It exploded as he had hoped. Behind him, the foot screamed bloody murder and threatened him with a preferably slow and very painful death. As if they wouldn't want to grant this to him anyway. He turned around, knowing he had achieved a temporary victory, and again he managed to dodge the laser beam at the last moment. This baka were actually shooting at him! Behind him, the transmat exploded in a fireball that rocked the whole cavern. Splinter protected his face with his arms as the kinetic energy of the blast hit him and he was blown away. Unfortunately he landed at his already hurt right arm, hissing in pain. Above him the ceiling rumbled threateningly. For a moment everyone paused, looking up. Then the ceiling came down.

Splinter limped back to the wall as fast as he could. Right know the foot were too busy to attack him any longer. The cavern was about to cave in, the transmat was permanently destroyed and his enemies couldn't decide whether they should rescue their equipment or their own lives. He slumped down and leaned against the wall. His right leg didn't want to carry him much longer and his vision was blurring. The fall had battered him more than he thought. A few ninja made a halfheartedly attempt to attack him, but decided to run when a boulder as big as a car landed in front of them. Splinter could almost laugh if the situation wasn't that serious. He knew that he had to get out of this mess, but somehow he couldn't pull himself together to stand up. He was half aware that he probably had a concussion. So he stayed sitting were he was, watching the foot deploying activity like an ant covey. With a lot of black ants…

He felt nauseous. The noise became lessened until he only heard a soft high-pitched whistle. Absent-minded he looked around the cavern. At least this whole uproar should have allowed Tally to escape without problems. Then she saw her, pretty much near the entrance, ducking behind some glass cylinders. What the hell was she doing?

Gathering all his will power, Splinter jumped up staggered in her direction. This was the best chance she would ever get! Now she had seen him and waved eagerly, at least he presumed so. Colored spots danced in his vision. She was not honestly waiting for him, was she? She stood up and took measures to run to him. Splinter raised his hands in shock. He had nearly reached her when a boulder hit the cylinders behind her, sending her to the ground spattered with the content.

"TALLY!"

Then another boulder hit him, he collapsed

"T-tally…" he reached out for her fingertips and grasped them tightly

The world went black.

--

Suddenly they heard a rumbling, which reached through the whole pipe. For a moment the tunnels were quaking, then there was an odd silence.

"It came from over there". Don pointed in the direction they were heading at.

"And Master Splinter?" Leo asked worried.

Don turned around, a worried look on his face.

"Over there, too."

They quicken their steps, and then they ran. Leo only broke in their search to examine some suspicious footsteps. When he stood up, blood stuck at his fingers. He stared at it for a moment, and then he moved his hand in order to go on. They ran through the pipes, following the signal of their master's communicator, worried and still hoping that everything would turn out to be fine, to be something they could laugh about later. No one dared to speak out his worries. Soon they passed their very first home and reached an area where they had never been before. The pipes there were old and close to collapse. When they were kids, Splinter had strictly forbidden them to play here and had accompanied his ban with massive spanking.

Was it that what had happened? Just a pipe, which collapsed? It sounded worse…

Leo raised his hand to signalize another stop. His brothers saw it as well. A lot of people had walked along here, and a good number of them must have been hurt, considering the bloody traces.

The air was dense and filled with dust. When they turned around a corner-

"You got to be kidding me!"

Raphael stared in disbelief at the buried cavern. Boulders piled up and completely blocked the entrance. Donatello stared at his display. The dot which was representing his fathers shell cell was still not moving- and it was somewhere behind those stones.

TBC


	14. The Price for Survival Part a

Finally, finally, finally

Finally, finally, finally… I can introduce my OC in the way I always wanted.

Thanks to everyone who read the last chapter! I never got so many reviews for a chappie (more than twice as much as usual ), so thank you so much! I really appreciate your nice comments and ideas!

gabumon: It was obvious, wasn't it? Yes, you had the right idea ;).

TMNT, Splinter etc. are property of Mirage.

Thanks to Cynlee for betareading and corrections!

Chapter 14: The Price for Survival- Part a

"There is an answer to the darkest times.

It's clear we don't understand but the last thing on my mind

Is to leave you.

I believe that we're in this together.

Don't scream - there are so many roads left.

Relax, take it easy

For there is nothing that we can do.

Relax, take it easy

Blame it on me…"

Mika: Relax

Pain. Blurred vision. Where…? Can't move. Trapped. Pain. _Head…_ So much pain. Consciousness came back in waves, interrupted by long black periods of oblivion. No feelings in arms and legs. A severe injury of the head… memory gaps… pain. In every fiber of the body. Not moving. Lying in a cave, being buried under tons of massive rocks, entombed… Pain. Black. No vision. Muggy, oxygen-poor air. Too difficult to breath, and again unconsciousness. A last thought flashed through his oxygen deprived brain: He hadn't been alone… Black.

--

They worked in pairs. Only two of them could shift the rocks at the same time, or they would cause a further collapse. Leatherhead had come to their aid immediately after Don had contacted him. His strength was a big help.

Don had toyed with the idea of employing a few of the machines he had developed, but abandoned this plan at once. It probably would do more harm than good, but he really wished for some kind of heat-seeking machine which was able to scan cave-ins. The tracker said the signal was about ten to fifteen meters away. When the whole cave came down three hours ago, the oxygen should be exhausted soon…

He shook his head energetically. Sometimes it was hard to be such a thinker!

Currently Mikey and Don were working at the entrance. Leatherhead stood behind them, setting aside every stone they handed back to him. They had already managed to dig in nearly three meters, supporting the stones with iron beams, when Mikey found something. A piece of black fabric, moistened with blood. A smashed human arm. Not Splinter. Hairy, male. Not Tally.

In silence, they freed the body of a dead foot soldier, who hadn't been as lucky as his comrades. Everyone of the brothers was grateful it wasn't their father. Everyone gulped and toughened himself because of the bodies - and the _sights_- they were yet to find.

It took them another two hours, and it was again Mikey who gasped sharply. His rough, bleeding fingers had brushed something soft and warm- something with brown fur. It wasn't moving. For a blink of a moment they hesitated, horrified by their thoughts what they might find when they'd move the stones. The image of the foot soldier was still fresh in their minds. Then they increased their efforts and worked in frantic haste, until they uncovered the body of their master.

Splinter lay on his chest. Because of his dark fur and clothes and the dim light, no one could say how badly he was injured. His right arm and his feet were still covered with small rocks and dust. Donatello knelt down; nobody dared to breathe as he searched for a pulse. Then he turned around, tears in his eyes, and nodded blissfully. His brothers began shouting and cheering, Raph and Leatherhead gave each other high five while Mikey tried to glomp onto Raphael's back. Raphael, taken by surprise, stumbled backwards and fell on Mikey.

"Jauuauauaouch!"

The overall pressure dissolved in roaring laughter.

"He has been really lucky", said Don and pointed at the stones. "One of the supporting beams must have fallen somewhere over his heads. This had blocked the bigger stones, so he was only buried and not smashed."

"And Tally?" Michelangelo suddenly interrupted.

Don sighed.

"I don't know. You and I will bring Splinter home, and the others will search for her."

Leonardo, Raphael and Leatherhead nodded. They were physically stronger than Don and Mikey, and Donatello was needed to care for Splinter. So they carefully pulled Splinter out of the loose chippings- and noticed that his right hand clutched another. A human hand. Tally.

They carefully freed her, and were very relieved when Don announced that her pulse was steady, too. They could see her usual bright skin, now much darker, covered and smudgy with blood and dust.

As fast as they could, they brought the two lucky survivors back to the lair. They chatted and laughed happily, and Mikey belted out a loud

"Cowabungaiaiaiaiaiaia-OUCH!"

"Mikey, you moron! You want to attract all the foot still down here?"

Raph damped his brothers enthusiasm not even a tiny little bit. While Leo was driving the Sewer Slider and Mikey and Raph were bickering, Don cared about the still unconscious Tally and Splinter- and kept his thoughts for himself. Tally's skin felt strange, so gluey- and not only because of the blood. He tried to rub the dust and blood from her arm, but the skin remained dark. She was feverish and her pulse was, although steady, very high. Too high.

April and Casey already waited for them in the lair, armed with bandages and medicine. They brought the two into the medical area, and while Don cared for Splinter, April treated Tally. They bandaged the two up, luckily not disturbed by Don's eager to help but pretty distracting brothers. Casey guarded the door to keep them away from the beds as long as Don and April needed time.

"That's strange", April said.

Don looked up.

"What?" he asked, exhausted. While they were digging and later on the drive back home, there had flushed enough adrenaline through his veins to keep a whole herd of elephants awake and active. But now, he just wanted to sleep until new-year.

April had wrapped up Tally's worst injuries. It was a miracle that both of them had survived, and as far as he could tell, neither had any broken bones. Splinter had a very nasty cut on his arm and a laceration on his head, and his ankle was swollen and infected. Tally had an open wound on her head as well. Probably both had concussions, but further than that they had a lot of superficial cuts and wounds and many bruises, but nothing really life-threatening.

"Their guardian angels have worked overtime", he muttered.

April smiled.

"Yes, sure. But look- I can't get this strange dirt from her skin. It almost feels- slimy. What has she been into?"

Don stood up to have a closer look at Tally. He carefully stroked a wet cloth over her arm, then he rubbed harder. Her skin reddened a bit, but stayed dark. He bent down to examine her arm and was shocked. It wasn't skin- it was fur! Very short brown hairs had grown all over Tally's body.

"April", he asked nervous, "have you touched this slime?"

She shook her head.

"I cleaned her first. But…"

She shrugged helplessly. Don reached for the bucket of now dirty water she'd been using.

"I suppose I better have a closer look at this!"

When he stood up, he nearly spilled the water. April touched his arm and gently directed him to the third bed in the medical area.

"Later. You need to sleep. I'll stay and care for them, I promise. Right now there's nothing you can do anyway."

Don nodded, too exhausted to argue. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 3 am.

When he woke up the next morning, Leonardo sat between his and Splinter's bed. April was nowhere to be seen. For a moment Don was tempted to close his eyes again to catch another five minutes of sleep, but unfortunately his brother had already seen his movements. Sighting deeply, Don stood up.

"Good morning, bro. Mikey's still asleep, Raphael and I haven' t even been to bed. We settled April on the sofa, she collapsed sometime in the morning."

Don felt the stirring of a guilty conscience.

"I really hope she hasn't overextended herself".

He stepped to his fathers bed, watching him and Tally in the next one. Splinter laid peacefully sleeping, but Tally had crouched on her side in fetal position. The sheets of her bed were soaked with her sweat. The brown fur was visible now even at that distance, and her body shape had become… odd. Donatello didn't know how to describe this. His scientific side was fascinated by the biochemical processes which must be occuring in her body right now, but on the other hand he was disgusted by his own thoughts. For his brothers, his father and himself, the mutation had been the greatest of all gifts possible- it had allowed them to life a life of self-conscious humanoid beings instead of animals. But Tally already had a life… and just what had caused this transformation?

He walked to her bed and touched her forehead. Frightened he pulled his hand back- she was virtually burning up with fever.

"I hope you haven't poured away the water."

Leo shook his head no.

"I put the bucket in the ice box, just in case."

Tally's hands were clenched in the blankets. Her already sharpened, almost claw-like fingernails had ripped holes into them. Don tried to gently loosen her grip, but couldn't do so without force.

"I suppose they haven't woken up yet?"

Leo smiled ghostly.

"Believe me, that you wouldn't have been able to sleep on!"

Don nodded wearily and went to the showers to disperse the last remains of sleep from his head.

Leo watched his brother leaving and grabbed the book which he had tried to read last night. Not that he managed to, he had noticed that he had read the same paragraph over and over again without being able to understand just a single word of it. What had happened in that cave? Why did they go there? And why had he just waited that long? If he would have just hurried, searched for them sooner, followed them from the beginning…

He sighed and closed the book. He knew he'd done everything he could, but he knew his conscience would torture him anyway. The best _he_ could had done was not the best what could had be done _at all_. He had failed- again, as on the ship. And again, it had almost cost his father's life.

After his shower, Donatello stumbled into the kitchen to satisfy his growling stomach. His youngest brother sat at the table and was absently playing with a spoon, trying to flip it into a glass which stood a little bit aside. Don watched him for a few moments, then he sat down besides him.

"They'll be fine, you know?"

Mikey only sighted and made another attempt to hit his glass goal. An uneaten bowl with cereal was set next to the sink.

"Still want to eat this?"

Mikey shrugged, so Don took the bowl. Long years of little food and hunger had taught them all never to waste consumables. He silently started to eat, but the permanent "pling pling pling" when the spoon hit the glass was getting on his nerves.

"Can't you stop that? You're going to break it!"

Mikey shrugged again and instead of aiming for the glass, he pounded the spoon against the table. Finally Don had enough. He grabbed his arm, and with a

"Come on!"

he led him to the medical area, where Leo was still watching over their two patients.

"See? Master Splinter is just sleeping. And Tally… is just…"

His brother looked directly in his face, as if he expected Donatello to continue, to end the sentence as the one before. Don turned his head away.

Still unusually silent, Michelangelo knelt down and reached carefully for the hand of his master. Gently he stroked over his matted fur. When he finally spoke, his voice was croaky and almost noiseless.

"How could he be fine under all those rocks? The Foot we found…"

His voice broke and he continued to palm his fur. When he looked up, tears were shimmering in his eyes.

"What if he has a serious concussion? Or internal injuries? He might never wake up again! Heck, a whole cave fell on his head!"

Donatello kneeled down next to his brother, trying to calm him.

"He's not feverish, and his pupils narrow at light, I tested it. He has been really really lucky, and he will wake up and be fine."

"You promise?"

Don hesitated for the blink of a moment, but that was already enough to terrify his brother again.

"Yes, I promise."

Mikey nodded, satisfied for the moment. He had no reason to doubt Donatello's word, because up to now he had always been right. Don exchanged a fast look with Leonardo, hoping that he could keep up his errorless statistic.

The brothers took turns in watching Splinter and Tally. The morning and midday passed by, but they still showed no sign of change for the better. Don had started to analyze the slimy water, assisted by April. After a few minutes, they silently agreed and brought the microscope and the necessary lab instruments into the medical area.

"This slime looks familiar… too familiar."

Leo looked up from his book. In all this hours, he just managed to read a few pages.

"What do you mean?"

"It has the same structure as the utrom ooze…"

Leo looked over to Tally. Her outward appearance was still her human form, but altogether she looked more like his master.

"Well, _that_'s a surprise!"

They both watched her as she moved restlessly in her bed, shaken by fever and convulsions.

"Can you heal it?"

"_Heal_? I do not even understand how it _works_ in the first place!"

"Poor Tally."

April, who had been silent up to now, went over to her bed and gently cleaned Tally's face with a cold washcloth.

"I mean, what's she gonna do? For you guys, it was different, you have never known another live, but she has a family, a job, a life on the surface."

"Maybe I can find a way together with Leatherhead. Maybe we can even contact the utroms, or maybe Master Splinter's friends in the battle nexus have a cure."

He didn't believe it himself.

In the late afternoon, at least one of their sorrows was reduced. Leo sat next to his father's bed when he saw his eyelids flitter. He immediately positioned himself in a way Splinter wouldn't been able to look at Tally. Splinter look vaguely in his direction until he was able to focus his glance.

"What… happened?"

He tried to sit up, but Leo pressed him down to the pillow at once.

"It's okay, you're both safe. We found you by following the signal of the shell cell. Tally is still asleep. You have a few nasty cuts, but Don says it's nothing serious."

Splinter carefully touched his forehead with his unhurt left hand.

"I have a bad headache", he whispered. "How is Tally?"

Leo briefly wondered. _Tally_? Not "Miss Brown"?

"Well… she's not that badly hurt…."

His master's eyes narrowed immediately.

"What's wrong with her?"

He tried to look at her bed, but Leo was still in the way.

"Please relax, master. Donatello is working on it and…"

Immediately Splinter jumped up, just to be convulsed with pain. In the very last moment, Leo was able to get a bowl when his father had to throw up. Splinter vomited gall bladder and gastric acid and fell weakly into his son's arms, coughing and shuddering convulsively. Leo held him tight, and when Splinter seemed to had calmed down a bit, he carefully put a pillow behind his back and helped him to sit leaning on the wall. Splinter pressed both palms again his forehead and breathed intensely. He still had to fight against his nausea.

"What has happened?" he croaked again, not even sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"We hoped _you_ could tell us. What happened in the cave?"

In short sentences, Splinter told his oldest about the happenings in the cavern. Talking exhausted him very much and he only wanted to sleep. But even more important was his concern about Tally. What did his son kept secret? Don had entered while he told his story. When he ended, Don nodded as if a question was finally solved.

"The ooze was a side product of the transmat technology. I assume it was in the canister and triggered the transformation."

"Transformation? What transformation?"

Leo stepped aside so that Splinter could look at Tally's bed. He stared in disbelief at her form, her obvious pain, and then at the bandage on his right arm.

"My blood… she touched me…"

Leo closed his eyes.

"Don is working at an antidote."

But Splinter didn't seem to hear him.

"This is my fault!"

Leo already opened his mouth to protest, but when he saw the horror in his father's face, the feelings of guilt and self-accusation in his eyes, he remained silent, for he know what it was like. No matter what he was going to do or say, Splinter would blame himself.

And Tally?

That remained to be seen. From his point of view, it was an accident, but would she see it so as well? He disbelieved and could only hope against better knowledge she wouldn't accuse his father.


	15. The Price for Survival Part b

I got a lot of nice reviews from you- I am really thankful and terrible ashamed that I didn't update any time sooner. Thanks to all the people who still read this story!

And special thanks to Cynlee for beta reading and corrections.

TMNT are owned by Mirage.

**Chapter 15: The Price for Survival- Part b**

_It's hard for me to say I'm sorry  
I just want you to stay  
And after all that you've been through  
I will make it up to you  
I promise you_

Chicago: Hard to say I'm sorry

She was floating in the calm, warm darkness. Her body felt weightless, the murkiness embraced her and swallowed her completely. She didn't care where she was. There had been an outside life, and pain, and shock. Right now she felt comfortable, she didn't want to leave. She wanted to enjoy this experience forever, she wanted to sink into this darkness to never wake up again. But slowly, something infiltrated her chosen solitude- a soft voice, talking to her, filled with so much pain and regret.

She shied away. No. She refused to hear this, refused to go back, but the voice went on and on. Memories flashed through the soothing atmosphere and confused her even further. But slowly, so slowly she remembered the happenings, the cave-in, the pain and she recognized the voice. She smiled softly, feeling relief. He was alive. They both survived.

"Master Splinter."

The pointed ears twitched, but Splinter showed no other reaction when he heard Donatello's irritated voice. He sat next to Tally's bed again, holding her hand and was talking to her. Don stepped over and grabbed for his fathers shoulder.

"What do I have to do to keep you in bed? You don't help her, you just worsen your own condition."

Splinter didn't answer, but he allowed his son to help him back into his own bed. Donatello had hoped that his infected ankle would keep him there, but far from it! He sighed deeply. Splinter stared at the next bed.

"She has been sleeping for three full days now".

"I'm working on it, honestly. But I cannot examine the ooze and keep an eye on you at the same time!"

The situation was really going on his nerves. His brothers and he took turns in watching over the two, but they had the same problems as himself. Splinter just ignored it. In his own way, he was just such a horrible patient as Don's brothers. No matter what, Donatello just hadn't the authority to keep anyone in bed. Normally Splinter would order them to lay down if one of the others was seriously hurt, but in this case…

"I'm sorry, my son."

Startled, Don looked up.

"It's just…"

When he saw the pain in his fathers eyes, Donatello felt pity. He had seen this expression before, every time when one of them was hurt or sick. He knew that Splinter would had taken every illness, every single wound on himself if that would have spared his sons. And then he sat day and night beside the bed, cared for them or was just there, always. It was obvious that he felt guilty because of what happened to Tally. Again and again they had assured him that it wasn't his fault, that he couldn't had prevented it. It was effortless. So Don just took Splinter's hand and did what his father had done for him so many times before: he comforted him by just being there. Splinter understood. He smiled gently and after a while, he felt asleep. Nevertheless, Don stayed at his bed and listened to his breathing, watched the steady up-and-down-movement of the blanket the whole afternoon.

The voice had disappeared. It was quiet now, except for the sound of her own breathing she couldn't hear anything else. She felt awkward. She was lying in a bed, but something just wasn't right. Her body was… wrong. The feeling of the blanket on her skin…

No. Was she feverish? She moved under the blanket and felt how it shifted, how the fabric rubbed over her skin. But the feeling was somehow different.

She could hardly open her eyes. When she tried first, the light hurt her so much that her eyes watered. She closed them, but it didn't seem to make a difference. It was so _bright_. She felt that someone bent over her. The brightness behind her closed eyelids was dimmed and she dared the open them again. One of the Turtles, she couldn't say who. A humming, blurred voice said something she couldn't understand. The Turtle grabbed for her hand and she pressed it weakly. Something cold touched her forehead, then she fell back into merciful darkness.

Donatello sighed and carefully ran a cold washcloth over Tally's forehead. She whimpered and muttered something incomprehensible, but wouldn't wake up again. Splinter was sleeping peacefully. He just wanted to leave when April entered the room.

"How are they doing?"

She carried fresh sheets and blankets and changed Tally's sweat-soaked ones.

"She woke up, just a few minutes ago."

"Did she understand what has happened?"

"She was barely awake… she fell asleep again after a minute. Luckily Master Splinter didn't notice."

April gently stroke Tally's now fur-covered arm.

"Any progress with the ooze?"

Don snorted.

"I suspect a certain lysogenic virus to trigger the mutation. But how should I test my working hypothesis? I can hardly go out and inoculate a random human. And even _if_ I think I found a cure- I will certainly have only _one_ single try. If I make a mistake…"

April pressed his hand.

"If anyone is able to solve this, then it is you. You even cured the mutants in the underground city, remember? Maybe you could-"

"I thought of that. There are no crystals left, nowhere. I already sent Raph and Leo down there and they came back empty-handed."

While discussing ways to reverse the mutation, the two left the room. Splinter perked his ears up. He had overheard the last sentences. He didn't know what "lysogenic virus" meant, but it didn't sound too good. Unfortunately he also knew that all of the magic crystals were destroyed when the original inhabitants of the underground city claimed their property back- from their point of view not just the city, but also the rest of the world.

He stood up and hobbled to the other bed, where he sat down and pressed Tally's hand, repeating the same words over and over: Don't give up, Donatello will find a way, come back, come back to me…

Again, she became self-aware. The pain had slightly diminished, but something different had changed, too. I am dreaming, she thought with eyes still closed. A cacophony of sounds washed over her- her own steady heartbeat and the one of someone close to her, steps and voices a little bit further away, water rushing through sewer pipes, subways and cars. Someone was speaking- Leonardo?

The sound was strange, but not as disturbing as the smells. Donatello had been here just some time ago, she was sure- and Splinter was still here. Was she dreaming? She slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurring, but the first thing she saw was a furry brown head. Splinter had fallen asleep in his chair, his head had sunken at the sheet . Somebody had wrapped a blanket around his shoulders. She gently smiled and noticed that he still held her hand, as he had surely done the whole time before.

Her _hand_…

Splinter almost fell backwards from the chair. Being waked by a bloodcurdling scream directly beside his ears would have even shocked him without a concussion, but now he was so startled that it took him a few minutes to understand what had happened. Tally sat in her bed, eyes wide with shock and terror, and stared at her shivering hands- now paws. Then she raised her head and looked into his eyes. Splinter couldn't stand the lack of understanding in it, the incredulity. He carefully stretched his hand out and longed for her shoulder.

"Tally, I-"

She flinched back as if he had attacked her. He laid his hands on the sheet.

"Tally, I am sorry. The green liquid in the canister-, well… Donatello is working on a cure. We-, we don't know exactly what happened, but I'm sure he will-"

She stared at him big-eyed. He wasn't sure if she had understood a single word of what he tried to say. Her expression hadn't changed.

"Tally, what I'm trying to say is-"

"You knew."

"What?" he asked, irritated. Her voice was flat and almost emotionless.

"You knew about the ooze."

When he realized this iniquitous accusation, it hit him like a bolt of lightning.

"I swear I would never-"

"Stay AWAY from me!"

She tried to spring out of the bed, stumbled and fell to the floor. On all fours she retreated to the wall and pressed her back against it, glaring angrily and with fear at Splinter who stood on the other side of the bed.

"I am sorry," he said again, unsure how to deal with this awkward situation. He knew better than to try to explain right now. Maybe April would get through to her, later, when she had calmed down. He slowly limped out of the room, hoping to find her. When he closed the door, Tally crouched crying to the ground.


	16. Changes

Oh

My

Gosh.

An update ;).

Thanks to Cynlee for betareading and corrections, and thanks to everyone who still reads this…

16. Changes

_Everybody needs a little time away  
I've heard her say  
From each other_

_Hard for me to say I'm sorry by Chicago_

Knock knock.

She stared at the wall. There were little holes in it, in a unpredictable pattern. Was it a pattern when it was unpredictable? She wasn't sure.

Knock knock knock.

A towel hung from a hook on the wall. It was light green, and it had water stains. Already used. Light green like- she shied away from that thought, from that very color. Light green was bad, so baddy-bad.

"Tally?"

The towel hid the mirror. Nevertheless she was still able to see her own reflection in it. No, not _her _reflection, _its_ reflection. She refused to think about the monster as _herself._

"You can't stay in there forever, you know?"

Yes, she could hear April. And she knew, yet… she couldn't come out. She just sat on the rim of the bathtub, the same scene repeating in her head over and over, the cave and the ooze… and he tried to rescue her. No, she couldn't stay in here forever. She couldn't come out neither. She couldn't look at his face, which was now her own, too; not after what she had said. Not after what she had become. He had rescued her. Her transformation wasn't his fault. But it was his fault that she had survived. He should have let her die.

She stretched her hand out and unlocked the door. April entered slowly, made an attempt to hug her, but when she felt Tally's body stiffening she just sat down next to her. April noticed the hidden mirror, the scratches, parallel in four lines, and the traces of dried tears in Tally's now fur-covered face. She wasn't crying anymore. Was that a change for the better? She grabbed for Tally's hand, held it tight. After a while, Tally's head sank down, and she cried against April's arm, soft and steady and seemingly endless. April gently stroked her hair. What could she say in such a situation? What could anyone say?

*****

Don looked through the microscope. Nope. Nothing. Another failure. Makes number sixty-three since he started five days ago with the tests. He hardly noticed that the door of his lab opened and suddenly April and Tally stood beside him. Startled, he almost dropped the petri dish.

"Woah. Where did you come from?"

He noticed the fresh tear traces in Tally's face, but made no remark.

"But it's good that you are here. I need another blood sample and-"

Without a word, Tally sat down at the nearest chair and rolled up the sleeve of the dressing gown April had loaned her. It was much too long now, although she still was half a head taller than Splinter. Don carefully placed the syringe in the vein. Tally watched him, unaffected. It was as if she wasn't really here. _Still under shock_, he though. _Who could blame her_? But he felt sorry for his master. It had been a long time since he had seen his father that depressed. He carefully avoided Tally, and pretty much everyone else, too.

"What exactly are you doing, anyway?" April asked, examining his petri dishes. Don sighed.

"I've "borrowed" some blood bottles from the city hospital and now I'm trying to infect them with the carrier virus I found in the utrom's ooze… Hasn't worked so far. Maybe the blood must be absolutely fresh, or it has to be a complete organism, or what do I know? The only thing I can say is that the mutation mechanism of us and her is similar, so it was the same mutagen. "

"And I bet you are not so keen to turn back into a normal turtle" a raspy voice said. April and Don turned around. It was the first time in two days that Tally had willingly said something.

"Er- no. But I'm careful."

Tally nodded.

"Donatello, be honest. Do you think there _**is**_ a cure, and if so, do you think _**you**_ can find it?"

Don bit his lips.

"I… I don't know. Maybe the utroms know, but I don't have the equipment here I'd need…"

She looked around. Almost everything looked makeshift, repaired, taken apart and repaired again; some machines were obviously not designed originally for what Don used them now.

"I see. But- thank you."

Don nodded, as Tally left the lab. Yes, he did all he could. But he knew that it wasn't enough.

Tally looked around in the lair, shifting her weight uncomfortably. Mikey sat on the couch, playing some computer game. From the dojo, she could hear Raphael hitting the punching bag. Her senses were so much sharper now. She didn't only hear the sound of Raph's fists striking the hard leather, but also his heavy breath and his feet shuffling on the cement when he changed his position.

Someone was in the kitchen. There was the smell of fresh tea, the sound of boiling water. A teacup tinged when it was set upon the table. Splinter? No. Someone heavier, from the sound of the footsteps. The heavy smell of sweat. Before she reached the kitchen, Tally knew it was Leonardo, who had just come back from a training run from the sewers. The rotten smell of spoiled water and garbage clung to his skin and wafted in the air. She wondered how Splinter could bear this every single day. Just two already drove her mad. Thinking of him…

"Leonardo?"

He turned around. Obviously he had noticed her before. All of them seemed to have a sixth sense of someone's approach.

"Do you know where Splinter is?"

He threw an evaluating glance at her, then he finally answered.

"He's out, in one of the tunnels. I think he's meditating", although he knew better. He was sure his father hadn't been able to calm down enough to meditate for the last two days, or even to sleep. He looked even worse than Don, and _he_ had spent the last days and night in his lab, deeply bent over his samples.

"He shouldn't walk around with his ankle…"

Leonardo merely shrugged. Not that he hadn't said so as well, but Splinter pretended to be deaf and he could hardly restrain him. Tally hesitated, then she asked:

"Can you lead me there?"

Leo sighed heavily, then he led the way. He knew Tally went through hard times, but sometimes he wished she would leave his master alone. Hopefully his clever brother would hurry up with the cure, and then life would get back to normal.

Splinter still sat at the same place Leonardo had spotted him during his exercise. He showed no sign of surprise when they approached, but then he made an attempt to leave when they reached him. Anger dwelled in Leonardo. This was_ their_ territory and as much Splinter's home as the home of him and his brothers. And yet this woman could scare his father away so easily, just as she would have more rights.

"Wait", Tally said and stretched her hand out. Splinter wouldn't look up.

"Can I talk with you? Under four eyes?"

As Splinter nodded, Leonardo took the hint and went out of earshot. Yet he stayed close- just in case.

Splinter sat down on the edge in the wall and heard the rustling of clothes beside him. He had avoided her as best as he could these last two days, considering that they were both practically trapped due to their injuries- for her sake and his own. He couldn't forget of what she had accused him, and these last two days he had spent pondering: Was there any truth in her words? Was she right? Could he had prevented it, or had there been some little demon in his subconsciousness which had told him to let things happen? Of course, he knew that the ooze was a side product of the transmaat technology and he recognized the machine immediately. _Did_ he recognize the mutagen also? The truth was: He couldn't remember. There were just flashbacks of foot ninja, screams and pain, and when the ceiling came down he was semiconscious. But he was well aware that there _was_ a tiny little voice inside of him which whispered that the current tide of events wasn't too bad for him. It seems that his intelligent son wasn't able to find a cure that easily and so she had to stay. And right know, he was the only one who could understand her or wouldn't run away screaming. He hated himself for this.

For awhile they sat on the edge in silence, watching the poor runlet of water in the midst of the tunnel.

"Just how on earth can you_ stand_ this stench?"

Startled he looked up and in her eyes, for the first time since she woke up.

"Well, I am used to it. . . I think."

There was an awkward silence between them. So much they wanted to say and no idea how to start.

"I'm sorry-"

"I have to apologize-"

Splinter smiled weakly.

" Ladies first."

Tally closed her eyes.

"I am sorry. I shouldn't have- yelled at you. I didn't – mean it, not really. I was just… you know. Confused. Sorry."

She lowered her head. Her hair fell down and covered her face. Splinter suddenly felt the urgent desire to touch the silky strands and brush it back. He clenched his hands.

"I would never hurt you. Especially not on purpose. I am very sorry and I deeply apologize that I was not able to protect you and for what- happened afterwards."

He stood up, bowed in front of her and stayed in this position. Then he felt her hand on his shoulder and raised his head. Tears were shimmering in her eyes.

"Guess it was my own fault. You told me not to follow that damn tunnel… Serves me right."

"You could not know-"

"Neither could you. Oh and Splinter- thank you for saving my life."

She breathed deeply, shivering all over. Splinter watched her with worry. He had the impressionshe was close to a break down. Her hand, still on his shoulder, was shaking. He gently helped her up.

"We should head back. "

She nodded and they slowly walked back. She was leaning heavily on Splinter's shoulders, he almost had to carry her. Her body felt hot and the shaking wouldn't stop. Luckily Leonardo had stayed close, so he could bring her home fast and safely. Splinter alone would have hardly been able to carry her the way on his own.

Donatello already awaited them in the sanitary area since Splinter had contacted him. They laid her down in a bed and put a cold washcloth on her forehead. She whined and struggled under the blanket, but wouldn't wake up. Don sighed.

"I expected this sooner or later. She's under a lot of psychical stress right now. I wonder why she didn't break down sooner. She's practically locked in here and being reminded every minute of what had happened to her doesn't really help. "

Splinter watched over her this night. The next morning, he was replaced by April, so that he could finally find some sleep himself. He was so exhausted that he didn't even notice how Don put a sleeping aid in his tea. After three days, Tally came finally around. Donatello still had no idea where to start in his search for a cure and so it was settled: Tally would move to April's place for the time being. It was the beginning of November, the days were grey and dizzy and so nobody would suspect something if April's curtains were always closed. But Tally cried when April told her of their decision: Even if it was just foggy and grey- she would see the sky again.

A/ N: End of this story arc. Now as I mentioned it, you'll surely suspect what comes next: A Christmas chapter. I hope you don't mind it's the middle of summer (or autumn, at my current writing tempo). It _was_ planned earlier. Mea culpa…


	17. Crossing the Bridge

Yeah, there are probably not that many flowers in the Central Park in late November- it's artistic freedom .

Many thanks to Cynlee for beta-reading!

_Disclaimer: Splinter and the TMNT are property of Mirage_.

**17. Crossing the bridge**

I can't fight this feeling any longer

And yet I'm still afraid to let it flow

What started out as friendship has grown stronger

I only wish I had the strength to let it show

REO Speedwagon - Can`t fight this feeling

April was worried. The first few days, Tally was practically delirious with joy to be out of the lair and the sewer system. She had touched April's few indoor plants and sat in front of the windows, staring at the sky with a smile in her face.

Then her behavior suddenly changed. She became nervous and irritable, then she suddenly started to clean the whole apartment spic and span, although April had assured her she didn't want any payback for letting her stay at April's apartment. Tally merely shrugged and carried on with scrubbing the sink. The only room she left out was the bath room and when she had to go in there, she carefully avoided looking in the mirror.

After the first two days, April had taken pity and asked Casey to remove the mirror. Tally was relieved but now April wasn't sure if that was a good idea. She had to get used to this new form eventually.

Three days ago, her obsession with cleaning had decreased, and now she just stared out of the window whenever possible. April had to make her eat and sleep and even to order her to take baths regularly. And Tally obeyed her as if she was a robot.

Yes, April was really worried.

Casey was visiting her. They sat in the kitchen, drinking tea, while Tally would stare out of the window in the living room. There was an awkward silence in the apartment. Both humans were well aware of Tally's newly acquired keen sense of hearing and so they were carefully avoiding everything related to Tally, Splinter and the Turtles. There wasn't much to talk about, their lives were too different. Casey tried to enthuse her for the last hockey match he had seen, but he went with Raphael to the stadium and April wasn't quite interested in sports anyway. April had worked together with Don in the lab for the two weeks Tally lived in her apartment. Nothing Casey would understand. They ended up talking about the weather.

"Yo, pretty rain, eh? And... gray! "

"Mmh."

And the TV programs.

"No matter how many times I watch Titanic, I still… are you listening?"

"Eh? Oh, sure!"

In the next room, Tally pressed her forehead against the cool glass and watched the raindrops falling endlessly from the cloudy sky. Weren't those two supposed to be in love? She wished she could switch her ears off, so she wouldn't been able to hear this embarrassing conversation, or the man yelling at his wife in the neighboring house, or the little kids screaming somewhere on the street.

She had thought the subway in the sewer system was bad, but this was worse. A cacophony of noises, signal-horns, scraps of conversations, screams and laughter overflew her keen ears every minute. She slept with blankets pressed against her ears and could still hear the newlywed pair in the night.

And if the sounds were horrible, then she didn't know a word to describe the smells. April had bought her peppermint oil. She dribbled it on tissues and put them in her neck line. It helped, a little bit.

When Casey left, he said he would go to the lair and asked her, grinning, if he should relay something to someone there. April stepped on his foot.

Tally just stared in his direction.

"No, for what" she finally said and looked out of the window again. Casey glanced at April but she shook her head. She really didn't want to leave her alone right now.

-----

"… and there she sits. Everyday, every night if April would let her, and she's not doing ANYTHING at all! She's just in this "I'm-way-to-depressed-to-notice-there's-a-world-around-me" mood and when you try to reach her, she doesn't even notice!"

Raph nodded at his friend's complaint.

"Pretty much the same down here."

He looked in the direction of Splinter's room.

"He's driving Don mad because he stayed in the lab the whole time and watched every movement of his. Well you know Donnie, he couldn't tell dear old dad to let him work in peace, so Leo had to. And now Donnie hardly dares to leave the lab, because Splinter's so depressed and Brainiac wants to announce good news."

"Any developments?"

Raphael looked around. His father was in his room, but you could never know… he lowered his voice.

"I personally don't think so. Don has studied our blood ever since he was able to get a grip at a microscope. He also got samples of the mutating ooze

from the Utroms and Honeycutt when they were at earth. Not even they know what has happened to us, and the Utroms _developed_ the ooze. And even if he believes that he found a cure: It might as well do more harm than else."

"We, _something_ has to be done. She's going mental!"

"Yeah, and Master Splinter tried to read one of Don's biology books."

Both imagined the rat with a scientific instead a philosophical book.

"Naaaa", Casey finally said. "One nut case in the family is enough!"

"Guilty conscience," Raph sighted.

"He saved her life!"

"Tell _him_."

They watched the rat in question leaving his room and going to the media area. Casey looked at the clock.

"Ain't it a little bit early for his soaps?"

Raph sighed.

"He watches way more tv recently. Hey- what do you-?"

But Casey had already stood up and strolled to the recliner. He rested his underarms on the backrest and watched a commercial for a detergent, a car, chocolate… Splinters ears twitched, yet Casey stayed silent, unusual at it was for him.

Finally Splinter gave in.

"You will sit more comfortable on the sofa," he said with a slightly irritated undertone.

Casey threw a fast glance over his shoulder. Raphael rolled his eyes and gesticulated him to retreat. Oh yes, Casey knew very well from personal experience that pissing off the rat was a bad idea of a lifetime.

Nevertheless, he sat down on the sofa close to Splinter.

"Do you remember?"

Splinter closed his eyes.

"I was a mere animal, so- no."

His voice and body language clearly directed Casey to drop the subject. Yet he went on.

"She's devastated. I think it would be good if she had someone to… well, talk to, and stuff, you know?"

His monologue partner stared at the tv.

"She's just sitting in front of the window, staring out at the rain. She puts peppermint oil in her nose and pillows over her ears. She never talks, doesn't respond to anything. Something must be done!"

"But not from me", Splinter whispered sadly. "I cannot help her".

Casey closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Geez, this would hurt… he prepared for a fast jump over the backrest of the sofa.

"You know, I never suspected you to be so chicken", he said casually. "Being afraid to face her… you at least owe her that much. And what could she do? Ditch you?"

Too late. Suddenly Splinter's snout was just one inch away from his own nose and when the human looked in the rat's eyes he suddenly understood why even Raphael avoided it to push his master further than a certain point. Yet although his eyes and the fists which had gripped his collar tightly spoke a different language, Splinter's voice was surprisingly calm.

"You will not speak like this about her. She cannot "ditch me", for we do not have such a relationship. I am not afraid of her, but seeing her would properly do more harm than good."

Somehow Casey found the courage to disagree and pressed the words through his dry throat: "You haven't seen her since her collapse. You don't live with her. You don't watch her breaking apart more and more every day. How do _you_ know what's best for her?"

It was Splinter who looked away first. He let go of Casey's collar and the brawny man couldn't help but sigh with relief.

"I am sorry", Splinter said and turned around to the direction of his room.

Casey couldn't deny himself from saying "I heard flowers do nicely".

Splinter paused for a moment, but luckily for Casey, he didn't take it personally. Yet he remembered this hint very well, as he had said so himself to Casey some time ago at the farmhouse.

Raphael and Casey both watched Splinter entering his room. Then the Turtle turned to his friend.

"Have you completely lost it?"

"Naa. Just wait."

It didn't take long. Just half an hour later, Splinter left the lair wearing the long trench coat he usually wore when he had to go surface. Casey smirked at Raph, then he switched on his shellcell.

"April? Hey, Babe. Can you leave Tally alone for a while and come down to the lair? I'll explain later…"

Raphael shook his head.

"You are such a moron."

Casey just smirked.

----------

Tally sat on the sofa, reading the newspaper without really getting what had happened. Then she heard a soft knock at the door.

Briefly she wondered why April would knock at the door of her own apartment, although her subconscious had already told her who waited behind it: the sound and rhythm of foot steps, the smell- she has never been that aware of it.

She rested her hands in her lap. Did she want to open the door? She wasn't sure. As long as there was no mirror, and just April and Casey, she could pretend everything was normal- even herself. And she wanted normality, needed it as desperate as she needed to breathe- _I'm Tally Brown, an M.D. and just taking a break before I go back to work, I need to clarify things with the police, the insurance- _

Her gaze fell on her hands- paws now. Four-fingered paws with slightly bent claws and short, red-brown fur. Animal paws. Not hers. Not Tally.

Then she stood up, well aware of the long minutes she had let him wait. He would be gone by now, she thought, but when she opened the door the first thing she saw was a bunch of wet, sweetly smelling flowers. And Splinter behind it, with a very uncertain smile on his face, tail flipping from side to side nervously.

"For…you?" he almost whispered, and Tally couldn't help but laugh. She stepped aside, invited him in, and closed the door behind her.

Splinter walked into the apartment and looked around as if it was his first time in April's home. Thanks to her phase of obsession with cleaning she knew better than April herself were everything was shelved and soon she found a vase. The combination of the flowers was unusual and she wondered where he had bought them.

"They look very beautiful" she said. "And the scent- " she closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet smell, trying to figure out the dozens of different notes. "I don't think I know these flowers".

"I have gathered them at the Central Park. Do you like them?"

"Wild flowers? You didn't buy them?"

He flinched back a bit and for a moment Tally saw a hurt expression in his face. She looked to the window, it was almost dark. Then at Splinter, whose fur was wet through; Splinter who had hang up his drippy trench coat in the bathroom and she finally understood. He couldn't just go to a flower shop, it required way more personal contact than a dimly lighted supermarket at four o'clock in the morning. She smelled again at the flowers.

"They are wonderful" she said and meant it. Splinter relaxed a bit.

"I guess we have to- no, I _want_ to talk with you. I am sorry I did not come to visit the past days, but I had the feeling you would not want me to."

Tally stared at the flowers. She had gotten many in her life- birthdays, celebrations, thank-you bunches from patients, but all of those had been arranged by shop personal and were wrapped in cellophane. She had never gotten such a _personal_ bunch. Somehow she knew he had picked every flower individually to arrange this composition. Doubtless he would have done the same if he _could_ have gone to a flower shop, checking every single blossom until he was satisfied with the overall picture, instead of just buying one of the prearranged bunches in the water buckets.

Suddenly she grabbed his hand and pressed it.

"Thank you".

"For what" he asked mildly surprised.

"For being here, and for being you. Just- thank you."

They remained on the sofa in peaceful silence, watching the flowers. The rain ceased and when it was completely dark outside, Splinter suddenly asked: "Would you like to go for a walk?"

---

She had never been in the Central Park at night- she wasn't tired of life. But with Splinter at her side, she felt safe. The knowledge that he was a Martial Arts expert and could seriously beat the crap out of every potential robber was very reassuring.

She was also sure that she wouldn''t have to fear a rapist in her current state. The trench coats they both wore and the big umbrella hid their body forms and their faces. Not that it was really necessary, no one except themselves was around. The whole park was theirs.

Eventually they found a park bench under an old tree which was more or less dry. It was almost full moon and the dim light changed the well-known surrounding into a surreal fairyland. Once in a while she saw a star blinking when the clouds moved.

She should feel wet, cold, but right beside Splinter, here in the moonlight, she felt as if she could finally cross the Rubicon. _She lifted a foot_.

"Splinter?"

"Yes?"

_And stepped on the metaphoric bridge_.

"Donatello is not going to find a cure, is he?"

She felt his body tensing.

"He does his very best, I assure you."

_She went a few steps_.

"But he doesn't know what he's doing. And he doesn't have the proper equipment".

Suddenly she felt exhausted. The more Splinter felt tense, the more she relaxed, the tension and panic of the past weeks left her body as she was finally true to herself.

"There won't be a cure".

There she was, at the other side if the Rubicon. As Splinter opened his mouth she put her hand over it.

"_I am Tally_. Not my body. Just me."

She saw the pity in his eyes and also the understanding. He knew what it had cost her to speak this sentence. Slowly, she lowered her head and rested it at Splinters shoulder. The bridge behind her was breaking down, but there was a way before her- illuminated by moonlight and with sweet smelling flowers at the wayside. Splinter raised his arm and laid it around her shoulders. And suddenly she felt right again- not being torn out of her surroundings, put in a wrong body and her whole life a complete mess- just right.

_The perfect moment_, she thought and closed her eyes.

Fifty meters away, a black-clothed man pressed the activator of his night vision camera as the two silhouettes cuddled up. And another time. And another time. He had almost filled the memory card yet already knew: no matter how sharp or explosive the pictures were- his superior would _kill_ him because he didn't bring his video camera along.


End file.
